NASDAQ Closing Cross Calculates U.S. Russell Indexes for the Ninth Year During Russell's Annual Reconstitution

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. 

22.06.2012 23:44
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NEW YORK, 2012-06-22 23:44 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
(Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced the NASDAQ Closing Cross was used for the ninth
consecutive year to rebalance NASDAQ-listed securities in the entire family of
U.S. Russell indexes during their annual reconstitution. Approximately 687.9
billion shares representing $9.5 billion were executed in the Closing Cross in
1.15 seconds across some 2,195 NASDAQ-listed stocks. 

NASDAQ official closing prices (NOCPs) determined by the NASDAQ Closing Cross
are widely used throughout the industry, by Russell Investments, Standard &
Poor's, Dow Jones, and mutual funds across the country. The NASDAQ Closing
Cross mechanism provides market participants with transparency and consistent
prices with the dissemination of imbalances, indicative and likely clearing
prices every five seconds via the Net Order Imbalance Indicator. NASDAQ OMX's
INET technology platform processes accurate closing prices for the industry in
microseconds. 

'The NASDAQ Closing Cross generated accurate closing prices during one of the
heaviest trading sessions of the year due to the speed and market integrity of
NASDAQ OMX's INET technology platform,' said Eric Noll, Executive Vice
President of Transaction Services U.S. and U.K. at NASDAQ OMX. 

He added, 'The rebalance is a critical part of adapting important benchmarks to
our ever-changing markets and NASDAQ OMX is proud to have participated for more
than 10 years and be chosen as Russell's Closing Cross partner since 2004.' 

The Closing Cross brings together the buy and sell interest in specific NASDAQ,
NYSE and NYSE 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. 

The Russell U.S. Indexes include only common stocks incorporated in the U.S.,
its territories, and certain countries or regions offering U.S. companies
operational, tax, political or other financial benefits. All Russell U.S.
indexes are subsets of the Russell 3000(TM) Index, which represents approximately
98% of the U.S. equity market. Russell U.S. Indexes allow investors to track
current and historical market performance by specific market segment (large
cap/small cap) or investment style (growth/value/defensive/dynamic). Today,
more than $3.9 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell Indexes. 

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 25, 2012. 

For more information about the NASDAQ Closing Cross, please visit
http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=OpenClose. 

About NASDAQ OMX

The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels
economies and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of
a trade - from risk management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the
U.S. and Europe, we own and operate 24 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central
securities depositories supporting equities, options, fixed income,
derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Able to process more
than 1 million messages per second at sub-40 microsecond speeds with 99.999%
uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed and
emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world's securities
transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the
benchmarks in the financial industry. Home to approximately 3,400 listed
companies worth $6.2 trillion in market cap whose innovations shape our world,
we give the ideas of tomorrow access to capital today. Welcome to where the
world takes a big leap forward, daily.  Welcome to the NASDAQ OMX Century.  To
learn more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook
(http://www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx). (Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500) 

About Russell Investments:

Russell Investments (Russell) is a global asset manager and one of only a few
firms that offer actively managed multi-asset portfolios and services that
include advice, investments and implementation. Working with institutional
investors, financial advisors and individuals, Russell's core capabilities
extend across capital markets insights, manager research, Indexes, portfolio
implementation and portfolio construction. 

Russell has about $155 billion in assets under management (as of 3/31/2012) and
works with 2,400 institutional clients, more than 580 independent distribution
partners and advisors, and individual investors globally. As a consultant to
some of the largest pools of capital in the world, Russell has $2.4 trillion in
assets under advisement (as of 12/31/11). It has four decades of experience
researching and selecting investment managers and meets annually with more than
2,200 managers around the world. Russell traded more than $1.5 trillion in 2011
through its implementation services business. Russell calculates more than
80,000 benchmarks daily covering approximately 98% of the investable market
globally, 83 countries and more than 10,000 securities.  Approximately $3.9
trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell Indexes (as of 12/31/11). 

Russell is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA. Russell has offices
around the world including Amsterdam, Auckland, Beijing, Chicago, Frankfurt,
London, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore,
Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. For more information about how Russell helps to
improve financial security for people, visit www.russell.com or follow us
@Russell_News. 

Russell Investment Group is a Washington, USA corporation, which operates
through subsidiaries worldwide, including Russell Investments, and is a
subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Russell
Investments is the owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights
related to its respective indexes. Russell's indexes are unmanaged and cannot
be invested in directly. 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that are made
under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about
the NASDAQ Closing Cross. We caution that these statements are not guarantees
of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those
expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond
NASDAQ OMX's control. These factors include, but are not limited to factors
detailed in NASDAQ OMX's annual report on Form 10-K, and periodic reports filed
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to
release any revisions to any forward-looking statements. 

NDAQG


         CONTACT: NASDAQ OMX Media Contacts:
         Robert Madden
         +1 646 441 5045
         Robert.Madden@NASDAQOMX.com
News Source: NASDAQ OMX



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Language:     English
Company:      The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
              
               
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