ADR Report: Shares Drop As Europe's Financial Sector Toils

International companies trading in New York closed lower Tuesday in line with the broader markets, after Federal Reserve officials took no immediate actions to bolster the economy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly repeated her rejection of the idea of raising the euro-zone future bailout fund.

The Bank of New York Index of ADRs dropped 1.3% to 117.56, hampered by Europe's financial sector.

French banks turned to the European Central Bank for an additional EUR11.5 billion in October from September, the Bank of France said Tuesday, indicating that private lenders are struggling to borrow from other banks, or facing tougher borrowing conditions. Societe Generale SA (SCGLY, GLE.FR) tumbled 8% to $4.46, BNP Paribas SA (BNPQY, BNP.FR) closed down 5.5% at $19.10 and Credit Agricole SA (CRARY, ACA.FR) fell 3.4% to $2.84.

Nomura downgraded European banks to neutral from bullish, saying economic and sovereign outlooks provide headwinds. Policy makers have repeatedly failed to address the causes of and concerns about the sovereign-debt crisis, the firm said, leading to much higher funding costs and forced deleveraging for the banking sector, which is a source of continuing earnings risk. "Under the weight of austerity, GDP expectations have declined sharply, and we now forecast an EU recession in 2012, an environment in which banks have rarely outperformed," Nomura said.

Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentenaria (BBVA, BBVA.MC) declined 5.4% to $7.83, Dutch bank ING Groep NV (ING, INGA.AE) lost 4.8% to $6.81, and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (DB, DBK.XE) slipped 4.3% to $35.68.

The European index fell 1.3% to 108.95.

British banks stumbled in line with their continental counterparts. Barclays PLC (BCS, BARC.LN) declined 5.2% to $10.82, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS, RBS.LN) slid 3.3% to $6.23 and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG, LLOY.LN) dropped 2.6% to $1.49.

WPP PLC (WPPGY, WPP.LN) said it has bought, for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, a majority stake in Mind Resource Healthcare Consulting Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. The British advertising firm also announced that it acquired 48,493 of its own ordinary shares for cancellation. Shares closed down 2.2% at $49.74.

The Latin American index slipped 1.5% to 327.76 and the emerging-markets index dropped 1.3% to 272.84.

Airline stocks struggled after crude-oil futures leapt on rumors that Iran closed an important Middle East oil-shipping channel--a rumor that later proved unfounded. Brazilian carrier Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA's (GOL, GOLL4.BR) shares slid 6% to $7.94 and rival Tam SA (TAM, TAMM4.BR) fell 2.3% to $19.15.

Gold ended lower, spending much of the day little changed on low volume as concerns about Europe's sovereign-debt crisis and a weaker euro continued to weigh on prices. That dragged down the shares of South African mining companies. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI, GFI.JO) fell 3.4% to $15.23; AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU, ANG.JO) slipped 3.3% to $43.03; Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY, HAR.JO) tumbled 2% to $12.62; and Drdgold Ltd. (DROOY, DRD.JO) edged 0.2% lower to $6.23.

The Asian index closed 1.4% lower at 113.61.

Two auditing firms that handled Olympus Corp.'s (OCPNY, 7733.TO) past financial statements are expected to approve revisions that the medical-imaging equipment maker is set to submit Wednesday, The Nikkei reported early Wednesday. Olympus will release results for the April-September half, as well as revised past financial statements, to the Kanto Local Financial Bureau. By meeting Wednesday's deadline for reporting first-half earnings, Olympus will avoid running afoul of one of the rules to avoid delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Shares climbed 6.7% to $17.50.

Those gains were more than offset elsewhere with Chinese solar companies faring particularly badly. Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP, K3ND.SG) fell 9.4% to $2.40, Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. (YGE) dropped 8.3% to $3.88 and China Sunergy Co. (CSUN) tumbled 5.3% to 56 cents.

-By Ian Thomson, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2314; ian.thomson@dowjones.com

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