Nasdaq announced the annual re-ranking of the Nasdaq-100 Index today, effective with the market open on December 24.

“The re-ranking is based on a number of objective criteria with market capitalization a key factor,” said John Jacobs, president and chief executive officer of Nasdaq Financial Products Services Inc., a subsidiary of Nasdaq. “We re-rank the index every year at this time and it is based on the number of shares outstanding and stock price. It reflects the current economy.”

The following 13 issues will be added to the Nasdaq-100 Index: ImClone Systems Inc, Charter Communications Inc., CDW Computer Centers, Inc., Symantec Corp, Sepracor Inc., Invitrogen Corp, Express Scripts Inc., Cephalon Inc., ICOS Corp, Cytyc Corp, Protein Design Labs Inc., Integrated Device Technology Inc. and Synopsys Inc.

The following 13 companies will be removed: Ariba Inc., BroadVision Inc., CMGI, Inc., CNET Networks Inc., 3Com Corp, Inktomi Corp, Level 3 Communications Inc., McLeodUSA Inc, Metromedia Fiber Network Inc., Novell Inc., Palm Inc., Parametric Technology Corp and RealNetworks Inc.

“The Nasdaq-100 is the most sought after index by investors in the world. It’s composed of the premier non-financial growth companies in the economy and the index has become a financial benchmark for investors globally,” said Jacobs. “In fact, it has outperformed every other major stock index in the U.S. for the 10 year period beginning December 1991, although past performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance.”

The Nasdaq-100 Index is composed of the 100 largest non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq Stock Market and dates to January 1985 when it was launched along with the Nasdaq Financial-100 Index, which is the 100 largest financial stocks on Nasdaq. These indices were originally designed to segment Nasdaq into two major industry groups to support media coverage and to act as benchmarks for financial products such as options, futures, and funds. The Nasdaq-100 is re-ranked in December each year, while the Nasdaq Financial-100 is re-ranked each June. Both re-rankings are timed to coincide with the respective triple witch options expiration Friday of the quarter.