US-listed shares of foreign companies rose on Friday, tracking major global markets, to close their best quarter in six as investors once again favoured equities over other assets. Bets that China's economy would avoid a hard landing, a move to contain the spread of the euro zone's debt crisis and weeks of better-than-forecast US economic data were the main drivers of growth for equities this quarter.
Leading the way were New York-traded shares of Asian companies, up 14.2 percent in the first quarter, with help from Japanese shares, up 18.3 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei average fell for a third straight session on Friday as investors continued to pocket gains from their strongest first-quarter rally in 24 years.
American depository receipts of Chinese companies also posted double-digit gains in the first three months of the year, up 11.4 percent. The broad BNY Mellon index of leading American depository receipts gained 9 percent in the last three months, its best quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2010. By comparison, the US benchmark S&P 500 index rose 12 percent for the quarter, and MSCI's major global stocks index added 11.3 percent.
Latin American ADRs also outperformed the broad index, with a gain of 11.5 percent. Brazilian ADRs rose 10.4 percent this quarter while ADRs of Mexican companies added 13.5 percent. Mexico's IPC stock index advanced 6.5 percent during the quarter, helped by gains in Cemex. The cement giant's ADR jumped 49.7 percent in the quarter after a near 71 percent advance in the last three months of 2011. Leading European ADRs underperformed the benchmark with a 6.6 percent gain in the quarter.
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