The Swiss Stock Market Finished Higher Friday, With Strength In Banks

(RTTNews.com) - The Swiss stock market ended Friday's session in positive territory and finished the trading week with an overall gain. The market is approaching the high of 7,800 points that it set earlier this year.

The market began the trading session in the green, thanks to some better than expected trade data from China. The stronger than expected U.S. jobs report for February provided further support in the afternoon.

The Swiss Market Index increased by 0.47 percent Friday and finished at 7,744.84. The SMI ended the trading week with an overall gain of 1.9 percent. The Swiss Leader Index climbed by 0.53 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index added 0.42 percent.

The stress test result for the U.S. banks proved to be positive for financial stocks at the end of the trading week. Credit Suisse ended the session with a gain of 3.9 percent. UBS upgraded the stock to ''Buy'' from ''Neutral.'' UBS climbed by 1.8 percent, while Julius Baer added 1.2 percent.

Nomura downgraded its rating on shares of Clariant to ''Reduce'' from ''Buy.'' The stock declined by 2.4 percent. Shares of index heavyweight Roche also lost 0.7 percent.

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