Nasdaq Closing Cross Had Record Day For Third Year As It Calculated Russell Indexes

The Nasdaq Stock Market announced the NASDAQ Closing Cross had a record day today as it was used to calculate the entire family of Russell indexes during their annual reconstitution. Approximately 690.8 million shares representing $10.5 billion were executed in the Closing Cross across some 3,200 NASDAQ stocks. This compares with 428.5 million shares representing $5.8 billion during Russell's annual reconstitution in 2005.

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.

All NASDAQ securities are eligible for 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 U.S. indexes since 1998 with more than $3.8 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 today and the newly reconstituted index membership will take effect when markets open on Monday, July 3rd.