The FINANCIAL — NEW YORK — The NASDAQ OMX Group announced the results of the annual re-ranking of the NASDAQ-100 Index, which will become effective prior to market open on Monday, December 19, 2011.
The following five securities will be added to the Index: Avago Technologies Limited, Fossil, Rangold Resources Limited, Hansen Natural Corporation, and Nuance Communications, Inc.
The NASDAQ-100 Index is composed of the 100 largest non-financial stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market and dates to January 1985 when it was launched along with the NASDAQ Financial-100 Index, which is comprised of the 100 largest financial stocks on NASDAQ. These indexes act as benchmarks for financial products such as options, futures, and funds. The NASDAQ-100 is re-ranked each year in December, timed to coincide with the quadruple witch expiration Friday of the quarter.
On a cumulative price return basis, the NASDAQ-100 Index has returned 1736% since inception, although past performance is not indicative of future performance.
The NASDAQ-100 Index is the basis of the PowerShares QQQ Trust which aims to provide investment results that, before expenses, correspond with the performance of the NASDAQ-100 Index. In addition, options, futures and structured products based on the NASDAQ-100 Index and the PowerShares QQQ Trust trade on various exchanges.
As a result of the re-ranking, the following five securities will be removed from the Index: FLIR Systems, Inc. , Illumina, NII Holdings, QIAGEN N.V. , and Urban Outfitters, Inc.
