The Nasdaq Stock Market is aggressively pitching for listings from Indian companies. The US-based bourse which has seen a considerable dip in its number of listings this year owing to the global economic slowdown is now turning its focus to the Asia-Pacific region.
Doreen Davis Owen, vice-president, Nasdaq International, said: "In the past, the Nasdaq has missed out on opportunities to get Indian companies listed. But now, having realised that there is tremendous potential in India in terms of companies which could match our listing standards, we are aggressively marketing ourselves in the country."
In the past, a number of Indian companies had initially approached the Nasdaq, but then got listed at the rival New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Nasdaq has also set up an office in India to facilitate more listings. At present three Indian companies, including Rediff, Sify and Infosys, are listed on the Nasdaq.
According to Owen, Nasdaq is taking steps to move away from the image of being an exchange just for technology stocks to even brick and mortar sectors like transportation and healthcare. At present, 25 per cent of the companies listed on the exchange are technology companies, while financial companies account for 19 per cent of the listings.
To make trading more user-friendly, Nasdaq has introduced a number of products, including SuperMontage which is a fully integrated order display and execution system. The new system will generate more access to liquidity for Nasdaq securities.
The 2001 market value of Nasdaq listings neared $2.9 trillion, with a daily share volume average of $1.9 billion. Peak share volume for a single day in 2001 was 3.2 billion.
