Swiss stocks failed to rally on Monday, staying near their lowest levels in almost a year amid continued weakness in the financial sector.
Banks were under pressure as private participation in a planned Greek rescue was being negotiated by European officials. The Greek parliament is now deliberating on austerity measures, with a bill expected to go for a vote on Wednesday.
Greek budget cuts will clear the way for a emergency funding designed to prevent a wider euro area debt crisis.
The benchmark SMI index lost 7.02 points, or 0.12 percent, to 5,991. The Swiss Leader Index (SLI) lost 0.32 percent to 926.16 and the broad Swiss Performance Index (SPI) slipped 0.24 percent to 5,501.
In news from the pharmaceutical sector, Roche is trying to convince U.S. regulators that conditional approval for breast cancer drug Avastin should not't be pulled.
Roche shares rose nearly 1 percent, while Novartis lost 0.65 percent.
Private bank EFG International AG slashed its 2011 profit forecast. Shares slipped 1.3 percent.
On Friday, UBS named John Dyment as its global head of hedge fund distribution. The stock was down 0.5 percent today.
Insurers suffered along with banks, as Swiss Re and Baloise fell 1 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
Julius Baer was one of the few winners in the financial sector, picking up 0.3 percent.
Meyer Burger was up 2.9 percent after announcing Friday evening that it has already secured more than 75 percent of the shares of Roth & Rau.
Clariant was down 2.6 percent after rival chemicals firm AkzoNobel NV said its second-quarter results would be hurt by challenging trading conditions and one-off factors.
Agri-science firm Sygenta was down 0.9 percent. Traders said selling pressure has eased amid recent tax law changes in Brazil.
Nobel Biocare was up 2.5 percent on a broker recommendation from a U.S. bank, which said the longer-term outlook for the industry was intact.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com