Facebook to replace Infosys on Nasdaq 100 next Wednesday

Infosys is the only Indian company to figure on Nasdaq 100, where it was included six years ago in December 2006, and its imminent exit from the benchmark index follows the IT giant's announcement last week to shift its listing to NYSE.

Nasdaq said in a statement that Facebook would become a component of the NASDAQ-100 Index, the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index, and the NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector Index prior to market open on Wednesday, December 12, 2012.

On all these indices, Facebook will replace Infosys Ltd.

Prior to its inclusion to Nasdaq 100 index, Infosys had become the first Indian company to get listed on Nasdaq in 1999. However, it has now decided to trasfer its Nasdaq-listed American Depositary Shares (ADS) to another American bourse, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and is also planning to get listed on Paris and London exchanges.

An ADS is a US dollar-denominated equity share of a foreign-based company available for purchase on an American stock exchange.

Infosys ADS will begin trading on the NYSE Euronext markets in the US under the ticker symbol 'INFY' on December 12, 2012, a company statement said.

Until the transfer is complete, Infosys ADS will continue to trade in the US under the ticker symbol 'INFY' on the NASDAQ, it added.

The Facebook stock has lost a significant value since its much hyped public listing in May this year.

Facebook Inc, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, has a market capitalisation of around USD 29.7 billion (Rs 1,62,000 crore). However, when the company went public, its market value was about USD 104 billion.

Bangalore headquartered Infosys Ltd has a market capitalisation of Rs 1,37,241 crore.

Reacting to the development, shares of Infosys lost 2.48 per cent and fell to an intra-day low of Rs 2,369 on the BSE. The stock finally ended the day at Rs 2,390, lower by 1.62 per cent on the BSE.

The social networking firm, which was founded eight years ago by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students, at present has around 1 billion users across the world.