By Josh Beckerman
International stocks trading in New York closed lower Friday.
The Bank of New York index of American depositary receipts fell
0.62% to 154.88. The European index fell 0.44% to 152.42, the Asian
index dropped 0.85% to 150.93, the Latin American index fell 1.31%
to 298.71 and the emerging markets index declined 1.21% to 303.65.
Among the companies with shares that actively traded were
GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK, GSK.LN) and SAP SE (SAP, SAP.XE).
GlaxoSmithKline became the latest Western company punished in
China's crackdown on alleged corporate corruption, saying Friday
that a Chinese court found its subsidiary in the country guilty of
bribing nongovernment personnel and fined the company close to
GBP300 million ($491.5 million). Shares rose 0.2% to $47.38.
"The illegal activities of GSKCI [GSK China Investment Co.] are
a clear breach of GSK's governance and compliance procedures; and
are wholly contrary to the values and standards expected from GSK
employees," Glaxo said Friday.
Analysts weighed in on SAP's $8.3 billion deal for Concur
Technologies Inc. (CNQR) announced late Thursday. Citigroup said
the deal has a high price but added that SAP has a strong record
with cloud-related businesses like SuccessFactors and Ariba. SAP
shares fell 4.4% to $73.97.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s (BABA) shares surged in their
market debut Friday, trading at about a third more than their
initial public offering price of $68 and making the Chinese
e-commerce giant one of the most valuable companies in the U.S. The
stock opened at $92.70 and jumped as high as $99.70 before
finishing up 38%, or $25.89, at $93.89 in 4 p.m. New York
trading.
Telefónica SA (TEF, TEF.MC) sealed its deal to buy Vivendi SA's
Brazilian unit GVT for about EUR7.24 billion ($9.3 billion),
cementing the Spanish telecom company's position in Latin America's
largest market. Telefónica rose 0.7% to $15.76.
Shares in Scottish lenders Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC
(RBS, RBS.LN) and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG, LLOY.LN) were
among several stocks that initially rallied after Scotland voted to
remain with the U.K. RBS closed up 1.1% to $11.89 and Lloyds was up
0.4% to $5.05.
Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com
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