The Swiss stock market finished modestly higher on Wednesday, recovering a portion of the losses posted during the previous session.
The market dropped more than 1 percent on Tuesday, amid concerns about the debt problems in Europe. Some positive signals from overseas helped spark a recovery early in Wednesday's session. Stocks held steady through the rest of the day.
The benchmark SMI advanced 0.6 percent to close at 6,535.24. The SLI climbed 0.6 percent to 1,020.47. The SPI rose 0.6 percent to 6,012.85.
Pharmaceutical stocks helped support the market. Roche climbed 1.1 percent, helped by news that it is cooperating with U.S. competitor Merck on a Hepatitis C treatment. Elsewhere in the sector, Novartis was up 0.8 percent.
Financial stocks were generally strong as well. UBS climbed 0.7 percent. Swiss Life climbed 1.8 percent, while ZFS advanced 0.6 percent. The gains were not across the board among the financials, however. Julius Baer slipped 0.2 percent and Credit Suisse was largely unchanged.
Trading in the financial sector came amid debt uncertainty and amid news that talks are nearly complete between Switzerland and Germany about a new tax agreement.
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