US-listed shares of foreign companies fell on Friday, led lower by European companies on heightened concerns about Spain's financial health and the euro zone debt crisis. The BNY Mellon index of leading American depository receipts fell 1.9 percent, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 0.9 percent.
The BNY Mellon index of leading European ADRs lost 2.1 percent. Madrid's bourse staged its biggest one-day drop in two years on Friday, dragging down the broad European equity market after Spain's Valencia region asked for a bailout. Spanish 10-year sovereign bond yields surged to historic highs, rising further above the 7 percent level that markets view as too expensive to be sustainable.
In equities, investors rushed to take profits on a rally which saw the FTSEurofirst 300 gain 10 percent since early June to hit 4-1/2-month highs on Thursday. Few wanted to hold on to bets through the weekend or summer holidays. Banks and insurers, which stand to lose out on their sovereign bond holdings and loan books if the euro zone crisis intensifies, were among the top fallers.
US-listed shares of Barclays PLC fell 3.2 percent to $9.94, and Credit Suisse lost 3.4 percent to $17.03. Deutsche Bank fell 4.7 percent to $30.05, and Royal Bank of Scotland lost 3.2 percent to $6.45. The BNY Mellon index of leading Asian ADRs lost 1.8 percent, and the BNY Mellon index of leading Latin American ADRs fell 1.4 percent.
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