Swiss Stocks Erase Losses as Investors Await Slovakia Vote, Actelion Jumps

Swiss stocks erased losses as investors awaited Slovakia’s vote on the euro area’s new bailout fund.

Actelion Ltd. (ATLN), Switzerland’s largest biotechnology company, jumped 4.8 percent. Givaudan SA (GIVN), the maker of the fragrances for Marc Jacobs’s Lola and Paco Rabanne’s 1 Million, rose 2.5 percent after reiterating its outlook. Zurich Financial Services AG (ZURN), Switzerland’s largest insurer, dropped 2.6 percent.


The Swiss Market Index (SMI), a measure of the biggest and most actively traded companies, added 0.2 percent to 5,732.14 at 4:41 p.m. in Zurich. The SMI has tumbled 11 percent this year as disappointing European and U.S. economic reports fueled concern that the global recovery is faltering. The broader Swiss Performance Index also gained 0.2 percent today.

“I believe the Slovakian government will be put under much pressure,” said Konstantin Giantiroglou, head of investment advisory at Neue Aargauer Bank in Brugg, Switzerland. “There is some uncertainty on the markets and investors are still cautious.”

Slovakia may approve the euro area’s new bailout fund even as a political storm threatens to topple Prime Minister Iveta Radicova’s governing coalition.

Slovakia’s largest opposition party, which pledged to reject today’s motion, will back the European Financial Stability Facility in a second vote, if lawmakers reject it today, Robert Fico, the group’s leader, told reporters in the capital Bratislava today. That would give the measure a majority. Parliament has yet to set a date for a second vote.