Indian IT major Cognizant rings NASDAQ bell

Monday, 05 March 2007, 18:30 IST
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New York/Chennai: Indian IT major Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation rang the NASDAQ opening bell at 9.30 a.m. (8 p.m. IST) on Monday simultaneously in Chennai and New York, commemorating "India's emergence as a global leader in the IT and BPO services". As the Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza pressed a button at its techno-complex in Chennai, India, the bell rang at NASDAQ's MarketSite at Times Square in New York City. "Cognizant is honoured to open the NASDAQ market from India, commemorating our rapid growth as a global services firm since our initial public offering nearly nine years ago and India's emergence as a global leader in the IT and BPO services industries," D'Souza said in Chennai. "NASDAQ is recognized as the pre-eminent global electronic stock exchange with the highest financial and corporate governance standards in the world, and we are pleased to be ranked among the world's leading companies in the NASDAQ-100 Index," he said. "NASDAQ is delighted to be opening the market with Cognizant, the first offshore IT services company to list on our market," said Charlotte Crosswell, the head of the US techno-stock exchange, in response. "Since its listing in 1998, Cognizant became the first offshore IT consulting company to join the NASDAQ-100 Index and has reached impressive milestones. We are delighted to be back in India to remotely open the market, and it is an honour to hold the ceremony in Chennai at one of Cognizant's state-of-the-art facilities," she observed. Cognizant, listed on NASDAQ since June 1998, was also added to the S&P 500 index becoming the first global offshore IT major to achieve this distinction. The company surpassed $1.4 billion in annual revenue in 2006. The Opening and Closing Bell events are symbolic ceremonies that represent the open and/or close of the NASDAQ trading day, which brings together investors and market participants from around the world to trade electronically. On an average, NASDAQ processes approximately 20,000 stock market transactions per second and nearly 12 million trades per day.
Source: IANS