ADRs End Higher; ABB, AB InBev and BT Group Trade Actively

International stocks trading in New York closed higher on Wednesday.

The S&P/BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts rose 0.3% to 143.88. The European index rose 0.5% to 134.69. The Asian index decreased 0.2% to 165.13. The Latin American index increased 0.5% to 246.56. And the emerging-markets index fell 0.1% to 307.98.

ABB Ltd. (ABB), Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (BUD) and BT Group PLC (BT) were among those with ADRs that traded actively.

As the market continues to wait for Swiss engineering company ABB to appoint a new chief executive, the investor day the company has scheduled for its electrification-products division should help investors better understand the underlying EP markets, Jefferies said. Second-quarter growth in the company's EP division should moderate compared with the first quarter and Jefferies said ABB's exposure to low-growth industries is a headwind to meeting its growth and margin targets. ADRs of ABB fell 0.7% to $20.01.

AB InBev's valuation for its Asia initial public offering is ahead of Berenberg's base-case estimates and the bank says the higher-than-expected proceeds will be beneficial to the Belgian brewer's net debt. "While the proceeds are not expected to entirely address debt concerns, we think they will help materially," Berenberg said. AB InBev is seeking to raise as much as $9.8 billion in the IPO, which could be the biggest ever listing of a food or drink company. ADRs of AB InBev rose 3.6% to $93.93

BT Group said Wednesday that it expects new accounting standards to boost fiscal 2020 adjusted Ebitda by 700 million pounds ($881 million), but not to have an impact on either revenue or cash flow. The telecoms operator said adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the year ending March 31, 2020, is expected to be GBP7.9 billion to GBP8.0 billion, compared with expectations under previous accounting standards of GBP7.2 billion to GBP7.3 billion. Adjusted revenue still is expected to be down about 2% from GBP23.5 billion reported for fiscal 2019. ADRs of BT rose 0.9% to $12.85.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 03, 2019 15:20 ET (19:20 GMT)

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