Infosys on Saturday became the first ever Indian firm to enter the prestigious Nasdaq 100 index joining the elite group like Google, Yahoo and Oracle, following its resounding success in third sponsored American Depository Share offering.
The largest electronic stock exchange of US Nasdaq Stock Market Inc on Saturday announced the reshuffle in its Nasdaq-100 index by including Infosys, which was listed on Nasdaq seven years ago.
The induction will be operational from December 18. Earlier, in November, in a bid to increase the liquidity of the company's shares in the US stock market and enter the coveted Nasdaq 100 index, the shareholders of Infosys Technologies had approved the proposal for raising over $1.6 billion through secondary offering of ADS.
Market capitalisation of the domestic IT major has surged to $30.64 billion calculated as per the ADS price at the Nasdaq on December 8.
"The Nasdaq-100 Index is one of the world's most recognised benchmarks that owes this distinction to its components: companies that are leaders in a diverse range of industries," Nasdaq executive vice president John L Jacobs said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Expressing delight, Infosys officials in Bangalore said it was a great recognition not only for the firm but for the whole country.
"We are delighted to hear about the inclusion of Infosys in the Nasdaq-100 Index, especially so, when we are celebrating our silver jubilee year," Infosys chief financial officer V Balakrishnan said.
Balakrishnan said India is leading the global growth, and companies like Infosys are helping corporates worldwide to effectively compete in a flat world.
Infosys along with Level 3 Communications Inc and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc has entered the coveted Nasdaq-100 index, composed of the 100 largest non-financial stocks on Nasdaq Stock exchange.
Infosys has now entered the elite group comprising of global IT giants like -- Amazon.com, Google, Cisco, Red Hat, Autodesk, eBay, Juniper Networks, Yahoo, Netscapes, Oracle and Apple Corporation.
Cognizant Technology, which has its biggest operation in India, joined this club in December 2004.
In terms of the total stock traded on the Nasdaq and the Indian equity market, the infotech major is much bigger than several other companies in the Nasdaq-100.
Infosys was also the first Indian company to list on the US stock exchange in as early as 1999 with a market capitsalisation of $1.9 billion.