The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) and CRD Analytics announced the expansion of the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index (Nasdaq:QCRD) today. The index will be expanded to include 100 securities and the name will change to NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index. These changes will be made in conjunction with the semi-annual evaluation, which will become effective prior to market open on Monday, November 22, 2010. To see a full list of securities included in the index, please visit https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/.
The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index is an equally-weighted equity index that serves as a benchmark for stocks of companies that are taking a leadership role in sustainability performance reporting and are traded on a major U.S. stock exchange. The Index is made up of companies that have taken a leadership role in disclosing their carbon footprint, energy usage, water consumption, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, employee safety, workforce diversity, management composition and community investing. These are companies that are voluntarily disclosing their current environmental, social and governance risks as well as their revenue opportunities and how it will affect future performance. The securities must also meet other eligibility criteria which include minimum requirements for market value, average daily share volume, and price. The Index is evaluated on a semi-annual basis in May and November. For more information about the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index, including detailed eligibility criteria, visit https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/.
The following fifty one securities will be added to the Index: Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT), Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), Nike, Inc. (NYSE:NKE), Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE:PEP), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM), Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE:KMB), Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT), Koninklijke Philips Electronics, N.V. (NYSE:PHG), Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY), Portugal Telecom SGPS, S.A. (NYSE:PT), STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE:STM), General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS), Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, Inc. (NYSE:FCX), Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX), Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE), France Telecom S.A. (NYSE:FTE), Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (NYSE:PCG), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE:RDS-A), Rockwell Automation Inc (NYSE:ROK), EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), Statoil ASA (NYSE:STO), Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce (NYSE:CM), BT Group plc (NYSE:BT), ASML Holding N.V. (Nasdaq:ASML), TransAlta Corp. (NYSE:TAC), Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE:ABX), ARM Holdings, plc (Nasdaq:ARMH), United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX), Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD), Life Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq:LIFE), Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE:DUK), Siemens AG (NYSE:SI), E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD), Sasol Ltd. (NYSE:SSL), QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq:QCOM), Amgen Inc. (Nasdaq:AMGN), Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE:TAP), Herman Miller, Inc. (Nasdaq:MLHR), Rio Tinto Plc (NYSE:RIO), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), Vodafone Group Plc (Nasdaq:VOD), Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC), United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS), Repsol YPF S.A. (NYSE:REP), Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN), Eaton Corp. (NYSE:ETN), Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU).
"We are very excited to be able to include so many global brands and true leaders in sustainability reporting & performance, we are clearly seeing definitive, quantitative momentum behind authentic Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance disclosure," said Michael Muyot, President and Founder of CRD Analytics. "The expansion of the NASDAQ CRD Global Sustainability Index to 100 companies comes at perfect time as many investors have requested a larger set of companies to create ETFs, mutual funds and separately managed accounts based on the QCRD index."
"The expansion of the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability Index helps maintain its position as the most relevant benchmark comprised of companies on the leading edge of self-reporting sustainability activities," said NASDAQ OMX Executive Vice President John Jacobs. "As the global ecological environment evolves, these companies have taken a leadership role in sustainability performance reporting."
As a result of the re-ranking, the following security will be removed from the Index: Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) as it did not generate full year 2009 Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) data per the SmartView index methodology by the September 30th, 2010 deadline due to their merger with Schering Plough.