The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced the NASDAQ Closing Cross was used for the ninth consecutive year to rebalance NASDAQ-listed securities in the entire family of U.S. Russell indexes during their annual reconstitution. Approximately 687.9 billion shares representing $9.5 billion were executed in the Closing Cross in 1.15 seconds across some 2,195 NASDAQ-listed stocks.
NASDAQ official closing prices (NOCPs) determined by the NASDAQ Closing Cross are widely used throughout the industry, by Russell Investments, Standard & Poor's, Dow Jones, and mutual funds across the country. The NASDAQ Closing Cross mechanism provides market participants with transparency and consistent prices with the dissemination of imbalances, indicative and likely clearing prices every five seconds via the Net Order Imbalance Indicator. NASDAQ OMX's INET technology platform processes accurate closing prices for the industry in microseconds.
"The NASDAQ Closing Cross generated accurate closing prices during one of the heaviest trading sessions of the year due to the speed and market integrity of NASDAQ OMX's INET technology platform," said Eric Noll, Executive Vice President of Transaction Services U.S. and U.K. at NASDAQ OMX.
He added, "The rebalance is a critical part of adapting important benchmarks to our ever-changing markets and NASDAQ OMX is proud to have participated for more than 10 years and be chosen as Russell's Closing Cross partner since 2004."
The Closing Cross brings together the buy and sell interest in specific NASDAQ, NYSE and NYSE Amex stocks and executes all shares for each stock at a single price, one that reflects the true supply and demand for these securities. All nationally-listed securities are eligible for the NASDAQ Closing Cross.
The Russell U.S. Indexes include only common stocks incorporated in the U.S., its territories, and certain countries or regions offering U.S. companies operational, tax, political or other financial benefits. All Russell U.S. indexes are subsets of the Russell 3000™ Index, which represents approximately 98% of the U.S. equity market. Russell U.S. Indexes allow investors to track current and historical market performance by specific market segment (large cap/small cap) or investment style (growth/value/defensive/dynamic). Today, more than $3.9 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell Indexes.
Russell reconstitution day is usually one of the most highly anticipated and heaviest trading days in the U.S. equity market as asset managers seek to reconfigure their portfolios to reflect the composition of Russell's U.S. indexes. The index reconstitution process was completed today and the newly reconstituted index membership will take effect before markets open on Monday, June 25, 2012.
For more information about the NASDAQ Closing Cross, please visithttp://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=OpenClose.