Infosys rings bell in Mysore, trading kicks off in NY

MYSORE: From 13,000 km away, Infosys Technologies remotely rang the opening bell for Nasdaq on Monday to mark the Indian IT giant’s 25 year celebrations.

Infy, the first Indian to hit Nasdaq in 1999, also became the first in Asia Pacific region to remotely open the trading for the world’s largest electronic stock exchange in New York.

The event was witnessed by 3,000 Infoscions present at the Mysore centre of Infosys. Infosys chairman NR Narayana Murthy rang the opening bell at 7 pm ( 9:30 am in New York).

The seven storey Times Square building displayed banner of the exchange congratulating Infosys celebrating its silver jubilee, and electronic signatures of Mr Murthy and Nandan Nilekani signed in from Mysore.

This symbolic opening of the stock exchange also goes in line with the new business perspective of Infosys — “shift your operational priorities, think flat”, showcasing the advancement of technology. Mr Murthy said, “This is validation of our business model and we continue with the commitment to our investors.”

Seven year since its listing on the Nasdaq, Infosys has changed the whole story of what Indian companies can achieve, as Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifield said, “The real story of Infosys is the way in which it changed the global sourcing model and redefining the whole process.”

He said, “The market is being opened from a great country. It is for the first time that any company had remotely opened the Nasdaq trading day from Asia Pacific, while it has earlier been done from London and Davos.”

Infosys currently has float of 38m shares. It also came out with an ADS in ’04, raising over $1bn. Nasdaq has over 1,200 companies and there are seven India companies listed.