RBS Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC

International stocks trading in New York closed higher on Wednesday.

The BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts rose 1.9% to 128.55. The European index increased 1.6% to 127.35, the Asian index improved 2.6% to 140.41, the Latin American index rose 2.2% to 154.44 and the emerging markets index increased 1.8% to 222.03. Shire PLC (SHPG, SHP.LN) was among the companies with ADRs that traded actively.

After a nearly six-month stalemate, Shire PLC (SHPG, SHP.LN) is entering the endgame in its pursuit of Baxalta Inc. The company expects to either strike a deal with Baxalta or walk away "reasonably soon," The Wall Street Journal reported citing a person close to the deal, since "most things have [now] been examined." Shire's ADRs rose 5.2% to $200.32.

AstraZeneca PLC (AZN, AZN.LN) announced two deals in two parts of the business the pharmaceutical giant is targeting for growth. The drugmaker agreed to acquire the respiratory business of Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. for $575 million. The company also said it would invest as much as $100 million in Chinese biological drugmaker WuXi AppTec for the option to acquire the company. AstraZeneca's ADRs rose 1.6% to $33.79.

Barclays PLC (BCS, BARC.LN) agreed to sell its risk analytics and index solutions business to Bloomberg LP for 520 million British pounds ($782 million), in the bank's latest move to focus on its core operations. The U.K. lender said the sale of the unit, which is expected to be complete by the middle of next year, will result in a pretax gain of roughly 480 million pounds. Barclays' ADRs rose 1.9% to $13.16.

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. said it would set up an online store on China's JD.com Inc. (JD) to reach the greater Chinese market as it faces limited growth prospects and stiff competition in Japan. JD.com's ADRs rose 2.1% to $32.23.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS, RBS.LN) said it is considering selling its Williams & Glyn unit after receiving interest from potential buyers, as it races to meet rules that require it to shed the business by 2017. ADRs rose 1.5% to $8.81.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 16, 2015 17:50 ET (22:50 GMT)

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