The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index is a

stock market index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an Index (economics), index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calcul ...

made up of securities of

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

-listed companies classified according to the

Industry Classification Benchmark The Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) is an industry classification taxonomy launched by Dow Jones and FTSE in 2005 and now used by FTSE International and STOXX. It is used to segregate markets into sectors within the macroeconomy. The ICB ...

as either the

Biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

or the

Pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry is a medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or self-administered by) patients for curing ...

. A list of the 225 components of the index is publishe
online

Criteria

In order to remain included within the index, the components must meet the following criteria: * The security U.S. listing must be exclusively on the NASDAQ National Market (unless the security was dually listed on another U.S. market prior to January 1, 2004 and has continuously maintained such listing). * The issuer of the security must be classified according to the Industry Classification Benchmark as either Biotechnology or Pharmaceuticals. * The security may not be issued by an issuer currently in bankruptcy proceedings. * The security must have a market capitalization of at least $200 million. * The security must have an average daily trading volume of at least 100,000 shares. * The issuer of the security may not have entered into a definitive agreement or other arrangement which would likely result in the security no longer being Index. * The issuer of the security may not have annual financial statements with an audit opinion that is currently withdrawn. * The issuer of the security must have "seasoned" on NASDAQ or another recognized market for at least 6 months; in the case of spin-offs, the operating history of the spin-off will be considered.

Investing in the index

This index is tracked by several exchange-traded funds, the most liquid of which is the

iShares iShares is a collection of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and index mutual funds managed by BlackRock, which acquired the brand and business from Barclays in 2009. The first iShares ETFs were known as World Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS) but hav ...

Nasdaq Biotechnology ().

References

External links

Nasdaq Biotechnology Index components

Yahoo! Finance page for NASDAQ Biotechnology
{{Nasdaqomx Biotechnology Index American stock market indices Stock market indices by industry Biotechnology in the United States