Infy makes way for Facebook in Nasdaq-100

Thirteen years after it got listed on the Nasdaq and became India’s first information technology (IT) company do so, Infosys Technologies has now paved the way for California-based Facebook’s inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 index.

It was in 1999 that Infosys’ revenues touched the $100-million mark and India’s IT bellwether’s American Depository Shares (ADS) listed on a foreign bourse.

According to a recent release, the Indian IT giant will transfer the listing of its ADS to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from the Nasdaq Global Select Market (Nasdaq). It is also seeking to list its ADS on the Paris and London exchanges of NYSE Euronext.

“Infosys ADS will begin trading on the NYSE Euronext markets in the US under the ticker symbol ‘INFY’ on December 12, 2012. Until the transfer is complete, Infosys ADS will continue to trade in the US under the ticker symbol ‘INFY’ on the Nasdaq,” said an official release.

“Our decision to transfer our American Depositary Shares listing to NYSE is motivated by a desire to leverage the NYSE Euronext partnership to empower our investor base, increase access to our stock for European investors and broaden the trading window available for our global investors," said SD Shibulal, chief executive officer and managing director, Infosys.

Replacing the Indian IT bellwether will be social networking giant Facebook Inc in the Nasdaq-100 Index prior to market opening on December 12, 2012. It will become a component of the Nasdaq-100 Index, the Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted Index and the Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector Index.

The historic initial public offering (IPO) of Mark Zuckerberg-owned Facebook did not go as planned in May this year, as the social networking company's valuations along with trading glitches saw the scrip close near its offer price. The stock had opened 11 per cent higher as compared to its $38 offer price. The IPO was the third-largest in US history and valued eight-year-old Facebook at $104 billion.