The Swiss stock market ended Friday's session in positive territory. The market got off to a slow start Friday, but remained in the green in the afternoon. The market received support from the performance of its most heavily weighted defensive stocks.
The market also received a boost from the strong performance of the U.S. markets and the better than expected U.S. consumer sentiment data. The consumer sentiment index came in well above economist estimates and reached its highest level since July of 2007.
The Swiss Market Index increased by 0.29 percent and finished Friday at 8,280.25. The SMI finished the trading week with and overall gain of 1.3 percent. The Swiss Leader Index rose by 0.38 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index added 0.28 percent.
Among the defensive heavyweights, both Nestle and Roche finished with gains of 0.4 percent. However, Novartis fell by 0.6 percent.
Most cyclical stocks finished to the upside at the end of the trading week. Transocean increased by 1.4 percent and Holcim gained 0.9 percent. ABB advanced by 0.8 percent and Geberit added 0.8 percent.
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