The Swiss stock market rallied higher on Friday, along with the rest of the European markets. The release of China's second quarter GDP result overnight helped to ease investor concerns. A downgrade of Italy's credit rating by Moody's had little negative impact on the market.
The market rallied further in the afternoon after the positive open of the U.S. stock markets. Some positive earnings results and the better than expected producer price index result helped the U.S. markets to snap their recent losing streak.
The Swiss Market Index climbed by 0.56 percent and finished at 6,181.81. The index finished the week barely changed. The Swiss Leader Index rose by 0.74 percent and the Swiss Performance Index gained 0.53 percent.
The luxury goods companies bounced back on Friday thanks to the Chinese GDP report. Richemont climbed by 3.7 percent and Swatch added 1.3 percent. Cyclicals were also among the positive performers. Transocean rose by 2.9 percent, Adecco gained 2.6 percent and Kuehne + Nagel added 2.5 percent. Clariant and Lonza both increased by 1.8 percent and Schindler rose by 1.4 percent.
Sika was among the biggest decliners, with a loss of 4.1 percent. Bank Vontobel downgraded its rating on the stock Friday to "Hold" from "Buy."
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