NASDAQ's closing prices were unaffected by the trading activity experienced in other unlisted trading privileges (UTP) exchanges that trade NASDAQ-listed securities, and it was the NASDAQ official prices (NOCPs) determined by the NASDAQ Closing Cross that were used by Russell Indexes and mutual funds across the country.
“The Closing Cross exceeded our expectations during the calculation and reconstitution of Russell's indexes, which require the most accurate closing prices possible,” said Adena Friedman, Executive Vice President of NASDAQ Corporate Strategy and Data Products. “The unique methodology behind the Closing Cross ensures a deep market and certainty of price at the close.”
“The Closing Cross is a powerful electronic auction,” said Bob Schwartz, a professor of finance of Baruch College. It provides a highly transparent and accurate market close for NASDAQ securities, a welcome development for index providers, mutual fund managers, and the broader investing public.”
The Closing Cross brings together the buy and sell interest in specific NASDAQ stocks and executes all shares for each stock at a single price, one that reflects the true supply and demand for NASDAQ securities.
Approximately 1,650 NASDAQ securities are included in the NASDAQ Closing Cross. The Russell indexes contain 98-percent of the market capitalization of all publicly-traded companies and are used as benchmarks for more funds than any other U.S. index family. They have been the fastest growing suite of indexes since 1998 with more than $1.4 trillion in institutional assets benchmarked against them.
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 indexes. The index reconstitution process was completed Friday, June 25, and the newly reconstituted index membership took effect when markets opened today.
NASDAQ has posted a spreadsheet showing all NASDAQ Official Closing Prices (NOCPs) determined by the Closing Cross.
For more information about the NASDAQ Closing Cross, please visit
http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader/openclose/ccfactsheet.pdf
NASDAQ is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. With approximately 3,300 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. Approximately 51% of NASDAQ-listed shares traded are reported to NASDAQ systems. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at http://www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom at http://www.nasdaqnews.com/
