ADR Shares End Higher; HSBC Shares Trade Actively

International stocks trading in New York closed higher on Monday. The Bank of New York index of American depositary receipts rose 0.63% to 155.06. The European index increased 0.54% to 151.58, the Asian index improved 0.68% to 152.90, the Latin American index rose 1% to 301.31 and the emerging markets index increased 1.21% to 303.10. Among the companies with shares that actively traded was HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC, HSBA.LN, 0005.HK).

HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC, HSBA.LN, 0005.HK) on Monday reported a drop in first-half net profit as business slowed in investment banking and some of its key Asian markets. Chairman Douglas Flint said the ramping up of a regulatory crackdown on banks is spooking its managers from taking normal business risks, as the bank blamed part of a fall in first-half profit on high compliance costs. Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said the outlook is broadly positive, though, for the rest of the year, and that an expected rise in U.S. interest rates should provide a boost. Shares rose 1.6% to $53.70.

Ecopetrol SA (EC, ECOPETROL.BO, ECP.T) showed a modest bounce Monday after hitting a four-year low on Friday. Even as global oil prices have remained high, Colombia's state-run oil company last week reported an 18% drop in second-quarter earnings, pointing to rebel attacks on transportation infrastructure that cut production as well as a weeks-long shutdown of a key pipeline when an indigenous community blocked repair crews trying to fix the damaged line. Shares rose 1.4% to $33.80.

European Union competition regulators cleared Siemens AG's (SIEGY, SIE.XE) 785 million British pounds ($1.3 billion) acquisition of Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC's civil energy operations Monday, a deal aimed at pushing the German engineering firm further into a segment that already dominates its business. Siemen's shares rose 4 cents to $120.99.

The People's Bank of China continues its love affair with the Italian stock market, this time taking a 2.1% share in Telecom Italia SpA (TI), according to Italy's stock market regulator Consob. "Probably the Chinese have just seen a good opportunity to buy a cheap European telecom stock and they took it," said a London-based analyst. Telecom Italia was controlled by a holding company called Telco for years. But shareholders Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI), Assicurazioni Generali (G.MI), Mediobanca (MB.MI) and Telefonica (TEF, TEF.MC) all agreed to dissolve it. The Italian shareholders have repeatedly said that they could sell their stakes after the dissolution of Telco. Telecom Italia shares rose 2.6% to $11.65.

Write to Tess Stynes at [e-mail]

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