In Brief: ADR Trading Surged By 40% in First Half

NEW YORK - Trading volumes of American depositary receipts on U.S. stock exchanges totaled 5.1 billion in the first half of 1995, a 40% increase from the first six months of 1994, according to Citibank.

The New York bank said, however, that 1995 trading volume in dollar terms was flat with the 1994 first half, at $130 billion.

Citibank also noted that while the number of companies launching ADRs in the last six months had declined from the year earlier, new issues and capital raising had increased markedly in the second quarter.

Devaluation of the Mexican peso and recovering investor confidence helped boost ADR trading in the first half of 1995, the bank said.

By June 30, 87 companies from 28 nations had launched ADR programs. Of the companies with new ADR programs, 35 raised an aggregate of $3.7 billion in new capital. At June 30, there were 1,470 depositary receipt programs - 609 for companies in the Asia/Pacific region, 556 from European countries, 191 from Latin America, and 114 from Africa.

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