Semi-Annual Changes to the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index

November 2, 2009 7:00 AM EST

NEW YORK, Nov. 2, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NDAQ) and CRD Analytics, LLC announced today the results of the semi-annual evaluation of the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index (Nasdaq: QCRD), which will become effective with the market open on Monday, November 2, 2009.

The following 23 securities will be added to the Index: Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX), AXA (NYSE: AXA), Astrazeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN), BHP Billiton PLC (NYSE: BHP), The Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS), British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (NYSE: BSY), BT Group PLC (NYSE: BT), Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE: CS), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), Reed Elsevier PLC (NYSE: ENL), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK), Johnson Controls, Inc. (NYSE: JCI), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MRK), Potash Corp. Of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT), Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE:RDS.A), The Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE: RY), SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), Siemens AG (NYSE: SI), Banco Santander SA (NYSE: STD), Telefonica SA (NYSE: TEF), and Unilever PLC (NYSE: UL).

As a result of the evaluation, the following securities will be removed from the Index: Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A), Companhia de Bebidas das Americas - AmBev (NYSE: ABV), Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL), The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL), Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT), BHP Billiton plc (NYSE: BBL), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY), Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX), Diageo plc (NYSE: DEO), Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ), ING Group, N.V. (NYSE: ING), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL), ProLogis (NYSE: PLD), Schlumberger N.V. (NYSE: SLB), Total, S.A. (NYSE: TOT), and UBS AG (NYSE: UBS).

The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 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 US stock exchange. The Index is comprised of companies that are most comprehensively 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. Securities of component companies must also meet other eligibility criteria, including minimum requirements for market value, average daily share volume, and price. The Index components are evaluated on a semi-annual basis in the beginning of May and November. To access more information about the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index, including a list of companies in the Index and detailed eligibility criteria, visit https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/data.aspx?IndexSymbol=QCRD&menuIndex=0.

"This development ensures that investors can track a relevant benchmark that is comprised of high performing companies that are committed to environmental, social and governance issues," said NASDAQ OMX Executive Vice President John Jacobs. "With the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index, CRD Analytics and NASDAQ OMX are leading the push towards sustainable investing."

"The reconstitution of the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index comes at a critical and pivotal point in the Investment environment," said Michael Muyot, CRD Analytics President. "CRD analytics now screens over 3,000 global corporations across all sectors for over 200 financial and ESG performance metrics. This larger universe led to an almost 50% turnover in the top 50 leaders, attributable to better disclosure from firms adopting the Global Reporting Initiative G3 Guidelines and the increase in asset managers and owners signing the U.N. Principles for Responsible Investing."

"It has become very competitive to stay within the top 50," Muyot added. "Those companies that publicly disclose before September 30th with real quantitative information are better positioned for sustainable, risk-adjusted performance. Companies with higher sustainability scores using a rule-based methodology make them more attractive to the investment community that is increasingly looking for better investment analysis of risks and opportunities."

NASDAQ OMX is a global leader in creating and licensing strategy indexes and is home to the most widely watched indexes in the world. As a premier, full-service provider, the NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group is dedicated to designing powerful indexes that are in sync with a continually changing market environment. Utilizing its expanded coverage as a global company, NASDAQ OMX has more than 1,500 diverse equity, commodity and fixed-income indexes in the U.S., Europe, and throughout the world.

NASDAQ OMX's calculation, licensing and marketing support provide the tools to measure and replicate global markets. The NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group's range of services covers the entire business process from index design to calculation and dissemination. For more information about NASDAQ OMX indexes, visit https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/.

Access to essential historical index data for NASDAQ OMX indexes can be accessed from a single source, NASDAQ OMX Global Index Watch. For additional information, please visit https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/indexwatch.aspx.

About NASDAQ OMX

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 over 3,700 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 an independent provider of investment analytics. The company's rigorous evaluation of financial, social, environmental and governance data is used to quantitatively determine the potential sustainability of a company, industry sector or investment portfolio, allowing for informed investment decisions and delivering optimized, risk-adjusted sustainable performance. Using its proprietary, patent-pending SmartView(TM) Platform, CRD Analytics empowers its clients with actionable and performance-driven information distilled from large sets of complex data. 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), and provides support for both passive and actively managed portfolios. CRD Analytics produces its Global Sustainability Outlook annually, containing in-depth investment analytics on its top Global Sustainable 250. For more information about CRD Analytics, go to http://www.crdanalytics.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The matters described herein may 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 OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index and NASDAQ OMX's other products and offerings. 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:  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
          +1.646.375.2122 x2280
          mmuyot@crdanalytics.com

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