NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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.
About NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group
NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group is engaged in the design, development, calculation, licensing, and marketing of NASDAQ OMX Indexes. NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group specializes in the development of indexes focusing on NASDAQ OMX's brand themes of innovation, technology, growth, and globalization. NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group also provides custom index services and design solutions as a third-party provider to selected financial organizations. For more information about NASDAQ OMX indexes, visit www.nasdaq.com/indexes.
About NASDAQ OMX Group
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world's largest exchange company. It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with approximately 3,600 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions to companies around the globe, including its U.S. listings market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX First North, and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. For more information about NASDAQ OMX, visit http://www.nasdaqomx.com. Please follow NASDAQ OMX on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/NASDAQ-OMX/108167527653 ) and Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx ).
About CRD Analytics
CRD Analytics is the leading provider of independent sustainability investment analytics. Using its proprietary SmartViewTM 360 Platform, CRD Analytics empowers its clients with actionable and performance-driven information distilled from large sets of complex data including financial, environmental, social, governance, brand perception and reputational risk. CRD Analytics partners with its clients to construct proprietary index-based products – Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), separately-managed accounts, mutual funds and Unit Investment Trusts (UITs). For more information about CRD Analytics, go to http://www.crdanalytics.com.
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CONTACT: The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. Media Contact: Wayne Lee +1.301.978.4875 Wayne.D.Lee@NASDAQOMX.Com Issuer and Investor Contact: Lisa Chaney +1.301.978.8281 Lisa.Chaney@NASDAQOMX.Com CRD Analytics Michael Muyot +1.212.683.3885 mmuyot@crdanalytics.com