The Swiss stock market finished weaker on Friday, after returning from Thursday's holiday. The market began the session to the downside, but managed to recover some ground before turning solidly negative again. The SMI turned in a negative performance for the overall trading week and dropped below the 5,800 point level.
The announcement that Moody's downgraded its ratings on 16 Spanish banks weighed on investors Friday. This was also the Swiss markets first opportunity to react to Thursday's weaker than expected economic reports from the U.S. and the news that Fitch downgraded the creditworthiness of Greece to "CCC".
The Swiss Market Index declined by 1.28 percent on Friday and closed at 5,797.76. The Swiss Leader Index fell by 1.73 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 1.26 percent.
Julius Baer was one of the largest decliners on Friday, with a loss of 4.1 percent. UBS declined by 2.4 percent and Credit Suisse dropped by 1.3 percent. Swiss Re finished with a loss of 2.9 percent and Baloise fell by 0.8 percent.
Shares of Syngenta dropped by 3.7 percent. Luxury goods companies Richemont and Swatch suffered losses of 2.8 percent and 3.7 percent respectively. Nobel Biocare fell by 2.8 percent and SGS lost 2.7 percent. Actelion declined by 3.1 percent and ABB decreased by 2.8 percent.
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