NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- At the end of the settlement date of January 31, 2008, short interest in 2,707 NASDAQ Global Market(sm) securities totaled 8,441,146,548 shares compared with 8,493,175,740 shares in 2,707 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of January 15, 2008. The end-of-January short interest represents 2.94 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 4.49 days for the prior reporting period.
Short interest in 516 securities on The NASDAQ Capital Market(sm) totaled 184,756,264 shares at the end of the settlement date of January 31, 2008, compared with 192,878,209 shares in 507 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents 4.02 days average daily volume, compared with the previous reporting period's figure of 3.13.
In summary, short interest in all 3,223 NASDAQ(r) securities totaled 8,625,902,812 shares at the end of the January 31, 2008 settlement date, compared with 3,223 issues and 8,686,053,949 shares at the end of the previous reporting period. This is 2.96 days average daily volume, compared with an average of 4.45 days for the previous reporting period.
The open short interest positions reported for each NASDAQ security reflect the total number of shares sold short by all broker/dealers regardless of their exchange affiliations. A short sale is generally understood to mean the sale of a security that the seller does not own or any sale that is consummated by the delivery of a security borrowed by or for the account of the seller.
For more information on NASDAQ Short interest positions, including publication dates, visit http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/asp/short_interest.asp.
NASDAQ is the largest U.S. equities exchange. With approximately 3,100 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks as well as a leading liquidity pool for trading NYSE-listed stocks. For more information about NASDAQ (Nasdaq:NDAQ), visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom at www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/.
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