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The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ), parent of the world's first electronic stock market and a leading index provider, today announced that NASDAQ indexes are the benchmarks for two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have won Morningstar awards for being the best ETFs for institutional investors in their respective categories.
The NASDAQ-100 Index® (Nasdaq:NDX) is the basis for PowerShares QQQ® (Nasdaq:QQQ), which Morningstar cited as the best ETF in the Large Growth category.
The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index® (Nasdaq:NBI) is the underlying benchmark for the iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index Fund (Nasdaq:IBB), which Morningstar determined was the best ETF in the US Health category.
The Morningstar Awards for ETFs are based on a quantitative process created to measure an ETF's ability to track its index and the ease of trade. The awards emphasize an ETF's ability to match its index with minimal expenses, tracking error and trading costs with less focus on historic returns. Morningstar has given two awards for each category, a retail award and an institutional award. Each category winner is intended to highlight the use of Morningstar data to assess the suitability of ETFs for different types of investors.
"We are elated to have two ETFs based on our indexes win Morningstar Awards," said John Jacobs, Executive Vice President of NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes. "NASDAQ OMX is dedicated to creating world-class indexes that deliver unsurpassed transparency into the equity markets and meet the needs of our customers."
Morningstar announced the ETF winners recently at its third annual investor conference in Chicago, Illinois on October 4, 2012.
