By Anna Prior
International companies trading in New York closed lower
Wednesday amid lingering fears over when the Federal Reserve is
likely to begin pulling back on bond buying, and a lowered outlook
for euro-zone growth.
The Bank of New York index of ADRs fell 1.1%, to 138.17.
The OECD cut its outlook on euro-zone growth, and now expects
the euro-zone economy to shrink 0.6% this year, down from an
earlier estimate of a 0.1% contraction.
Additionally, the organization slashed its global growth
forecast to 3.1% in 2013 and 4% in 2014, down from 3.4% growth and
4.2% respectively.
The European index dropped 0.7%, to 132.04.
Shares of GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK, GSK.LN) dropped 3%, to
$52.01. The U.K.-based drug maker said it bought Swiss-based
Okairos AG, a specialist developer of vaccine platform
technologies, for 215 million pounds ($325 million) in cash.
The Asian index declined 1.5%, to 138.50.
Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL, K3KD.SG) sharply widened its
first-quarter loss as the Chinese solar-products maker again
reported a double-digit percentage drop in revenue while margins
continued to narrow. Shares slid 11%, to $6.04, as results markedly
missed Wall Street estimates.
China-based image processing IC and surveillance solution
provider Vimicro International Corp. (VIMC) reported a loss of 7
cents per American depositary share for the first-quarter and said
that revenue from continuing operations fell about 29%, to $7.9
million. The company said the decrease was primarily due to lower
sales of PC and notebook multimedia processors, offset by higher
sales of surveillance products. Shares fell 8.6%, to $1.60.
The Latin American index tumbled 2.3%, to 306.64, and the
emerging markets index dropped 1.6%, to 273.49.
Shares of most Brazilian companies dropped as the Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, said Wednesday that
the country's gross domestic product expanded a meager 1.9% in the
first quarter from a year earlier, falling well short of
economists' estimates for 2.38% growth. Among the biggest decliners
were airliner Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (GOL, GOLL4.BR),
which fell 8.5%, to $4.84, state-run utilities holding company
Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA (EBR, ELET6.BR), which dropped
6.3%, to $2.83, and petrochemical and utilities generation company
Braskem SA (BAK, BRKM5.BR), which decreased 5%, to $15.77.
Bucking the downward trend was Brazilian real-estate developer
Gafisa SA (GFA, GFSA3.BR). Shares rose 1.6%, to $3.82, amid reports
that the company could be close to selling a stake in its
Alphaville Urbanismo unit. The company isn't commenting on
reports.
Write to Anna Prior at anna.prior@dowjones.com