ADR Report-Foreign shares up on weak USD, Mexico outperforms
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Nov 23 - Foreign stocks traded in the United States rose on Monday on a weaker U.S. dollar and upbeat economic news, while shares of Mexican companies outperformed the overall market despite a downgrade to the country's debt rating.
Fitch Ratings cut Mexico's sovereign credit rating by one notch and assigned a stable outlook. The Mexican peso and local stocks rose further after initially paring gains. The downgrade, though widely expected, took some uncertainty off the table. For details see [ID:nN23261132].
"Now that the uncertainty has been removed, I think there is more space for markets to react positively to any good news to be had for Mexico," said Benito Berber, an economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.
The Bank of New York Mellon index of leading American Depositary Receipts <.BKADR> gained 1.7 percent and the local index of Mexican ADRs <.BKMX> rose 1.9 percent. The Latin American ADR index <.BKLA> added 1.7 percent.
Among Mexican ADRs, Cemex <CX.N> advanced 2.6 percent to $11.38 and America Movil <AMX.N> gained 2.3 percent to $48.09.
In other news, Wall Street-traded shares of Chinese company LDK Solar <LDK.N> jumped 7.3 percent to $8.58 after the solar wafer maker reported a surprising third-quarter profit and guided toward better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales. [ID:nBNG390732]
Also moving higher on earnings was China's 51job Inc <JOBS.O>, which surged 13.5 percent to $18.92 after posting better-than-expected results for the third quarter and forecasting a strong fourth quarter. [ID:nBNG414434]
The BoNY Mellon index of leading Asian ADRs <.BKAS> added 1.3 percent. Asian shares rose as resource stocks led to gains in Australia, while Japan's stock market was closed for a holiday.
The BoNY Mellon index of leading European ADRs <.BKEUR> rose 2 percent. In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index climbed 2.1 percent -- its largest percentage jump in more than five weeks.
Top ADR gainers included German engineering company Siemens AG <SI.N>, up 3.7 percent at $99.07, and Spain's Banco Santander <STD.N>, up 3.7 percent to $17.59.
The U.S. dollar fell broadly after a Federal Reserve official on Sunday reaffirmed expectations that interest rates would stay low for some time and was further weighed down by stronger-than-forecast existing home sales released on Monday in the United States. For details, see [ID:nN23252398] (Additional reporting by Jean Luis Arce and Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal) ((rodrigo.campos@thomsonreuters.com; + 1 646-223-6344; Reuters Messaging: rodrigo.campos.reuters.com@reuters.net))