ADRs End Mostly Higher; GlaxoSmithKline Trades Actively

International stocks trading in New York closed mostly up on Wednesday.

The BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts improved 0.51% to 145.79. The European index increased 0.4% to 137.23. The Asian index rose 0.85% to 167.73. And the emerging-markets index rose 0.89% to 307.77.

Meanwhile, the Latin American index eased 0.04% to 233.77.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK, GSK.LN) was among those with ADRs that traded actively.

GlaxoSmithKline axed more than 30 drug-research projects to focus on four key disease areas in a push by new Chief Executive Emma Walmsley to sharpen the company's research-and-development operations. U.K.-based Glaxo said Wednesday it would now focus its research on respiratory diseases, HIV and other infectious diseases, cancer and immuno-inflammatory conditions. ADRs fell 2.7% to $40.85.

JD.com Inc. (JD) has managed to outpace China's e-commerce market overall by focusing on fast deliveries, and by expanding its product line to entice affluent Chinese consumers, who are less price-sensitive and looking for the latest gadgets and specialty food items, said Robert Hah, a managing director at Accenture Strategy Greater China. JD.com's continued growth is being watched by technology-industry analysts. JD.com is now about $5 billion below search engine Baidu Inc. (BIDU) in market value, positioning the online retailer to possibly overtake Baidu as China's third-largest internet company after Tencent Holding Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. JD's ADRs closed up 3% at $45.87.

Three years into an oil-price slump, investors want the world's biggest oil companies to do something they have historically struggled with: Maintain some financial discipline. The companies are under pressure to show they are continuing to move on from budget-busting projects once common in the industry, as they head into second-quarter financial disclosures that begin on Thursday with Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSA.LN, RDSB, RDSB.LN), which closed up 0.49% at $55.53, and Total SA (TOT, FP.FR), up 1.1% at $50.39.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS, RBS.LN) will spend more than GBP800 million on measures to increase competition in the U.K. banking market to atone for breaking European Union rules following its bailout during the financial crisis, the U.K. government said Wednesday. ADRs closed up 1.1% at $6.70.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 26, 2017 18:46 ET (22:46 GMT)