Stock market falls on euro zone fears
The Swiss stock exchange closed well down on Tuesday after a day of turbulence caused by fears about the euro and rising tension between North and South Korea.
The Swiss Market Index (SMI) of 20 top rated companies, slipped 1.85 per cent to 6092 at close of trading, while the more broadly based Swiss Performance Index (SPI) was down 2.11 per cent to 5367.
The market was at its lowest around midday, but picked up slightly in the afternoon.
The worst hit companies were those that are particularly sensitive to the economic climate, including Petroplus, down 6.1 per cent, Clariant, down 5.2 per cent, Swatch, down 4.4 per cent, and Holcim and Adecco, both down 3.6 per cent
It was a bad day for financial shares as well, with Julius Bär bank losing 4.3 per cent, Credit Suisse 3.6 per cent and UBS 3.4 per cent. Insurance companies were also down.
Some of the heavyweights did better: Nestlé lost only 0.6 per cent, and Novartis one per cent.
Stock exchanges fell all over Europe to their lowest close since September.
swissinfo.ch and agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
Newsletters
Contributions under this article have been turned off. You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.