ADR Shares End Higher; BHP Billiton Shares Trade Actively

International stocks trading in New York closed higher on Wednesday. The BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts rose 0.85% to 153.67. The European index increased 0.77% to 151.12, the Asian index improved 1.1% to 150.73, the Latin American index rose 0.76% to 292.45 and the emerging markets index increased 1.24% to 300.99. Among the companies with shares that actively traded was mining giant BHP Billiton.

BHP Billiton is considering a secondary listing in London for a new company it is spinning off containing noncore mining assets, following pressure from shareholders who were unhappy at its original plan to list the company only in Australia and South Africa. Shares of London-listed BHP Billiton PLC (BBL, BLT.LN) rose 2.7% to $58.68 while shares of Australia-listed BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP, BHP.AU) rose 1.2% to $62.20.

Shire Pharmaceuticals LLC has agreed to pay $56.5 million to settle allegations that it overstated the efficacy of several of its drugs, including the attention-deficit treatment Adderall XR, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday. Shire Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Dublin-based drugmaker Shire PLC (SHPG, SHP.LN), allegedly violated the False Claims Act from 2004 to 2007 by promoting that Adderall could "normalize" recipients, making them indistinguishable from non-ADHD peers. Shire shares rose 2.1% to $256.09.

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