Cognizant rings Nasdaq opening bell

Chennai-based IT major Cognizant Technologies Solutions became the second company to remote-ring the opening bell from India to signal the commencement of the day's trading on Nasdaq.

The company's president & CEO Francisco D'Souza, along with Charlotte Crosswell, head of Nasdaq International, pressed the button to ring the Nasdaq opening bell remotely on Monday.

The event was conducted parallely at Cognizant's sprawling techno-complex in Chennai's IT Corridor and Nasdaq's MarketSite on Times Square in New York City.

"Cognizant is honoured to open the Nasdaq market from India. It shows our rapid growth as a global services firm since our initial public offering nearly nine years ago," D'Souza said.

Cognizant was the first offshore IT services company to list on the Nasdaq and was ranked among the world's leading companies on the Nasdaq 100 Index in 2004.

With $1.42 billion in revenues for the year ending December 2006, Cognizant was listed on the Nasdaq under the 'CTSH' symbol in June 1998 on a starting market cap of approximately $100 million. By December that year, Red Herring magazine had ranked it as one among its top 25 stocks for the year.

In November 2006, Cognizant was selected to join the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which is widely regarded as the best single gauge of the US equities market. Cognizant has an employee headcount exceeding 40,000 and expects to add over 17,000 people in 2007.

Cognizant surpassed $1.4 billion in annual revenues in 2006. In November 2006, the company was selected to join the S&P 500 Index, becoming the first global offshore IT services firm to achieve this distinction.