MOSCOW, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The Moscow Exchange said on Friday it would offer access to shares and depositary receipts from an additional 20 international companies on Nov. 2, part of a wider drive to expand its foreign share offering.

The trading of new shares, which will include China's Alibaba and Baidu, will bring the overall number of foreign issuers' securities on the Moscow bourse to 40. The exchange said it plans to take this number to above 50 by the end of the year.

The Moscow Exchange began offering access to shares from the U.S. S&P 500 index in August, a break-through for its long-awaited project, which was slowed by western sanctions. Russia's largest bourse had originally planned to offer trading access to around 50 U.S. companies in the third quarter of 2018.

American Airlines, Coca-Cola, General Motors , Tesla and Walmart are among the shares that the Moscow Exchange will open access to in November, the exchange has said.

"In the future the exchange will widen the list of available assets, analysing client demand and also the wishes of banks, brokers and management companies," it said in a statement.

It said the shares of foreign issuers were traded and settled in roubles, but dividends on U.S. securities would be paid in U.S. dollars.

The exchange's chief executive Yuri Denisov told Reuters last week it was betting on rising numbers of retail investors, and was ready to offer more foreign securities, denominated in roubles, to ensure convenience for Russian investors. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh and Elena Fabrichnaya; Writing by Alexander Marrow and Mark Potter)