International stocks trading in New York closed higher on Wednesday.

Barclays PLC (BCS, BARC.LN) was among the companies with ADRs that traded actively.

The BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts rose 1.1% to 132.16. The European index increased 1.2%, to 132.09; the Asian index edged up 0.58%, to 140.33; the Latin American index rose 2.2%, to 167.20; and the emerging markets index increased 0.94%, to 223.89.

Barclays has agreed to pay $150 million to resolve an investigation by New York's banking regulator into a trading practice that allowed the bank to exploit a milliseconds-long lag between an order and its execution to its clients' detriment. The penalty is the latest to stem from Barclays' foreign-exchange trading, a line of business that, with the latest settlement, has cost the British bank more than $2.5 billion in penalties. ADRs rose 1.6%, to $13.92.

Finnish wireless-equipment specialist Nokia Corp. (NOK, NOKIA.HE) on Wednesday commenced its share-exchange offer with Alcatel-Lucent SA (ALU, ALU.FR) shareholders in Paris and New York, betting its 15.6 billion euros ($16.6 billion) acquisition will allow the new company to better compete in a global race for scale in the business of making telecommunications and Internet gear. Nokia ADRs rose six cents, to $7.31. Alcatel-Lucent ADRs increased 1%, to $3.97.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR3.BR, PETR4.BR) said late Tuesday that oil production in Brazil rose 2.1% in October from the previous month, thanks to the completion of maintenance operations. However, Petrobras reported that output from the vital pre-salt fields fell 2.3%. The Brazilian state-run oil company touts its pre-salt production often, and the metric is closely watched as production from mature fields starts to plateau. The numbers next month likely will be much worse, affected by major production stoppages resulting from a continuing oil workers' strike. On Wednesday, Petrobras's ADRs rose 4.3%, to $5.07.

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

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 18, 2015 18:26 ET (23:26 GMT)

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