New Benchmark Tracks Companies Taking the Lead in Sustainability Performance
Reporting
NEW YORK, June 15, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
(Nasdaq:NDAQ) and the CRD Analytics today introduced the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global
Sustainability 50 Index (Nasdaq:QCRD). The index enables investors to track the
performance of the companies that are taking a leadership role in
sustainability performance reporting. These companies have voluntarily
disclosed their carbon footprint, energy usage, water consumption, hazardous
and non-hazardous waste, employee safety, workforce diversity, management
composition and community investing. The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability
50 Index is the latest index launched by the NASDAQ OMX Global Index Group and
underscores its commitment to designing and calculating relevant world-class
indexes.
"The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index tracks the companies on the
leading edge of self-reporting sustainability activities," said NASDAQ OMX
Executive Vice President John Jacobs. "With the changing global ecological
environment, the component companies are taking positive steps to take
advantage of the new economic and regulatory realities we face."
"The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index is a landmark in making
sustainability more investable. The companies are force ranked based on a more
holistic set of risk-adjusted performance metrics," said CRD Analytics'
President, Michael Muyot. "Using a quant-based, Triple Bottom Line methodology
allows companies to be compared on an apples-to-apples basis. This has helped
elevate extra-financial analysis into mainstream investing."
The NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index is powered by CRD Analytics'
SmartView(tm) system based on over 150 quantitative financial, environmental,
and social performance indicators of a global universe of equities. Each
component of the NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index must:
* produce a publicly available corporate sustainability/
responsibility report;
* disclose compatible sustainability data according to (GRI) G2/G3
guidelines;
* report at least 20% of total core environmental performance
indicators;
* report at least 20% of the total core social performance
indicators; and
* report at least 70% of the total financial performance indicators.
The Index is calculated in real-time and began calculation with a value of
1,000.00 on June 15, 2009.
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 3,800 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.
About CRD Analytics
CRD Analytics is the leading provider of independent sustainability investment
analytics. Using its proprietary SmartView(tm) Technology Platform, CRD
Analytics empowers its clients with actionable and performance-driven
information distilled from large sets of complex data including financial,
environmental, social, governance and patent information. 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). 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
Index Licensing Contact:
Robert Hughes
+1.212-401-8987
robert.hughes@NASDAQOMX.com
CRD Analytics
Michael Muyot
+1.212.683.3885
mmuyot@crdanalytics.com
NASDAQ OMX and CRD Analytics Launch New Index Tracking Corporate Sustainability Performance
| Source: The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.