This article mentions that INSP may join Nasdaq 100 after Dec. 15th. If they get chosen, up, up, up we go!
RSH
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BEA Systems, Time Warner Telecom Seen Joining Nasdaq 100 Index
By Helen Veit
New York, Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- BEA Systems Inc. and Time Warner Telecom Inc. are among stocks likely to join the Nasdaq 100 Index after Dec. 15, according to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.
If the predicted changes take place when the Nasdaq Stock Market shuffles the index's line-up next week, technology stocks' weighting would fall to 75.2 percent from 75.8 percent, according to a report by the brokerage firm.
Health-care stocks' weighting would increase to 8.5 percent from 7.31 percent.
Yigal Jhirad, a quantitative strategist at Morgan Stanley, said in an interview that the decline in technology's weighting reflects ``what's happened in tech the last few months.'' The Nasdaq Composite Index has fallen 44 percent from its March 10 record.
The Nasdaq adjusts the index's membership four times a year so it continues to contain the 100 largest non-financial Nasdaq companies.
Stocks going into the Nasdaq 100 may rise while those being removed may fall because managers of funds that track the index's performance will have to adjust their holdings.
As of Nov. 24, the total assets in the Nasdaq-100 Index tracking stock rose to a record level of more than $20.4 billion, according to Wayne Lee, a spokesman for Nasdaq.
About $1 trillion tracks various Standard & Poor's indexes, according to David Blitzer, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor's. The bulk of those funds are dedicated to the S&P 500.
BEA Systems, Time Warner
In addition to BEA Systems and Time Warner Telecom, stocks that may be added to the Nasdaq 100, according to Morgan Stanley's preliminary analysis, are Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.; Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Exodus Communications Inc.; Terra Networks SA; Tibco Software Inc.; ASM Lithography Holding NV; Rational Software Corp.; Human Genome Sciences Inc.; Flextronics International Ltd.; Mercury Interactive Corp.; Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp.; Inktomi Corp.; TMP Worldwide Inc.; Abgenix Inc.; and InfoSpace Inc.
BEA Systems, which is up 100 percent this year, would rank 27th in the rebalanced index. The San Jose, California-based company makes WebLogic software, an application server that lets companies share information among different systems in their networks and over the Internet.
While no changes to the index will be decided until next week, BEA's market value, currently listed at approximately $24 billion, gives the company ``the first shot at getting into the index,'' Jhirad said.
Shares of Littleton, Colorado-based Time Warner Telecom, which provides telephone and Internet Services, are up 15.6 percent.
Paccar, Dollar Tree May Leave
Companies that may be removed from the Nasdaq 100 include Paccar Inc.; Dollar Tree Stores Inc.; Cnet Networks Inc.; Sigma- Aldrich Corp.; American Power Conversion Corp.; Synopsys Inc.; Apollo Group Inc.; Quintiles Transnational Corp.; Microchip Technology Inc.; Novell Inc.; Network Associates Inc.; Northwest Airlines Corp.; Compuware Corp.; Herman Miller Inc.; Adaptec Inc.; Legato Systems Inc.; and PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.
To be eligible for the index, a stock must trade at least 100,000 shares daily on average. Companies generally also must have been on Nasdaq or another major exchange for a minimum of two years, unless they are ranked within the top 25 of the Nasdaq 100, in which case a one-year seasoning period is required. Foreign stocks must have a worldwide market value of at least $10 billion, a U.S. market value of at least $4 billion, and average trading volume of at least 200,000 shares daily. |
