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The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced the NASDAQ Closing Cross had a record day today as it was used to calculate the entire family of U.S. Russell indexes during their annual reconstitution.
Approximately 893.3 million shares representing a record $12.0 billion were executed in the Closing Cross across some 3,100 NASDAQ-listed stocks. This compares with 678.5 million shares representing $11.7 billion executed during Russell's annual reconstitution in 2007. To see the top 10 crosses in terms of share volume, please visit http://www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/RussellR2008.pdf.
NASDAQ official closing prices (NOCPs) determined by the NASDAQ Closing Cross are widely used throughout the industry, including Russell Indexes, Standard & Poor's, Dow Jones, and mutual funds across the country.
"This record-setting performance by the NASDAQ Closing Cross demonstrates the high level of confidence industry professionals have in the nation's premier price discovery facility," stated Chris Concannon, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX. "Once again, this powerful electronic auction has given index providers, mutual fund managers, and the investing public accurate closing prices during one of the heaviest trading sessions of the year."
The Closing Cross brings together the buy and sell interest in specific NASDAQ, NYSE and 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. Russell's family of U.S. indexes reflect 99 percent of the market capitalization of all publicly-traded U.S. companies and are used as benchmarks for more institutional funds than any other index family. They have been the fastest growing suite of U.S. indexes since 1998 with about $4.4 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 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 30.
For more information about the NASDAQ Closing Cross, please visit http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=OpenClose.
