ADR Report-Petrobras up ahead of pricing but global ADRs slide

NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - U.S.-traded shares of Petrobras rose more than 2 percent on Thursday, leading the region and helping cut losses in global ADRs, ahead of the pricing of the Brazilian energy company's massive stock offering.

Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) could raise up to $79 billion later on Thursday in the world's biggest share offering, giving the company the financial muscle it needs to tap into vast offshore oil reserves as Brazil aims to become a global energy powerhouse.

The cash portion of the offer, valued at around $36 billion, was oversubscribed by twice the available amount, according to International Financing Review.

The rest of the $79 billion deal is a $42.5 billion oil-for-shares swap with the Brazilian government.

"There's got to be an enormous amount of push to get (the deal) done," said Kurt Wulff, president at McDep LCC in Needham, Massachusetts.

"But will there be enough interest from these government sources to keep buying if the stock can't see enough demand to keep the price where it is?" he asked. "There's so many variables, we don't really know what's going to happen."

Petrobras' American depositary receipts rose 2.5 percent to $35.59, but are still down more than 25 percent year-to-date.

The stock at this price is a sound, long-term investment according to Wulff.

"If you look at it from a chart point of view, the 200-day moving average is moving down and ideally you'd like to see it turn up and buy the stock around that point," he said.

"Because it is such a huge deal, we don't expect it to take off from here right away."

The share's advance on Thursday boosted an index of Latin American companies' ADRs .BKLA, which gained 0.5 percent.

Global ADRs fell, weighed by shares of European companies after data showed a sharp slowdown in euro zone services and manufacturing growth.

Banco Santander (SAN.MC)(STD.N) dropped 3.6 percent to $12.26.

New York-traded shares of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L)(GSK.N) fell 1.8 percent to $39.43 after European health regulators recommended it pull its diabetes drug, Avandia, off the market because of concerns over heart attack risks. [ID:nLDE68M1JJ]

The BNY Mellon index of leading European ADRs .BKEUR dropped 1.1 percent and the BNY Mellon index of leading Asian ADRs .BKAS lost 0.6 percent.

The index of leading ADRs .BKADR fell 0.8 percent. (Additional reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Sao Paulo; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)