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The Switzerland market ended notably lower on Wednesday, in line with markets<\/span> across Europe, as concerns about global economic growth rose after Fitch downgraded U.S.’s sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+, citing fiscal deterioration and repeated debt ceiling standoffs.<\/p>\n The benchmark SMI, which tumbled to 11,130.71 earlier in the day, ended with a loss of 96.55 points or 0.85% at 11,212.70.<\/p>\n Sonova and Richemont lost 3.63% and 3.56%, respectively. Swiss Life Holding, Swiss Re, UBS Group and Logitech ended lower by 2.4 to 2.6%.<\/p>\n Alcon, Partners Group, Givaudan, Lonza Group and Gebeirt lost 1 to 2%.<\/p>\n Roche Holding and Novartis ended modestly lower. Roche’s subsidiary Genentech has accused a Novartis unit, Sandoz, of infringing one of its patents.<\/p>\n In the Mid Price Index, AMS tanked more than 9%. DocMorris dropped 8.1%. Temenos Group, Dufry and VAT Group ended lower by 4.76%, 4.54% and 4.13%, respectively.<\/p>\n Straumann Holding, Julius Baer, Meyer Burger Tech, Swatch Group, Bachem Holding, SIG Combibloc and Tecan Group lost 2 to 4%.<\/p>\n In economic news, Swiss consumer confidence improved for the third straight month in the third quarter, survey results from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, showed.<\/p>\n The consumer confidence index dropped to -27.1 in the third quarter from -29.6 in the preceding three-month period.<\/p>\n Despite this further improvement, the consumer sentiment index remained well below the long-term average of -6. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n