Annual Changes to the NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. ("NASDAQ") (Nasdaq:NDAQ) and Mergent, Inc. announced today the results of the annual review of the NASDAQ(r) Dividend Achievers(tm) Index, which will become effective with the market open on Thursday, February 1, 2007.

The review will result in 21 securities being added to the Index. All securities meet Dividend Achievers requirements of increased annual regular dividend payments for the last 10 or more consecutive years. The securities must also meet additional liquidity screening criteria as determined by Mergent. As a result of the annual reconstitution, three securities will be removed from the Index. The net result is that there are 99 companies identified as Dividend Achievers listed on NASDAQ.

The NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index is calculated using a market capitalization weighting methodology. The index will be calculated and disseminated on a price return basis (Nasdaq:DIVQ) and a total return basis (Nasdaq:DVQT). For more information about the NASDAQ Dividend Achievers Index, including eligibility criteria, visit www.NASDAQ.com.

Additions:

ALAB Alabama National BanCorporation BANR Banner Corp. FBNC First Bancorp (NC) FCBC First Community Bancshares, Inc. FFIC Flushing Financial Corp. FFIN First Financial Bankshares, Inc. HRZB Horizon Financial Corp. HTLF Heartland Financial USA, Inc IFIN Investors Financial Services Corp. MSFG MainSource Financial Group Inc OMEF Omega Financial Corp. PBKS Provident Bankshares Corp PEBO Peoples Bancorp, Inc. RNST Renasant Corp SBCF Seacost Banking Corp of Florida SFNC Simmons First National Corp. SYBT S.Y. Bancorp, Inc. THFF First Financial Corp. UMBF UMB Financial Corp WASH Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc WCBO West Coast Bancorp

Deletions:

BPOP Popular Inc. QUIX Quixote Corp. SUBK Suffolk Bancorp

About Mergent

Mergent, Inc., a Xinhua Finance company (TSE Mothers: 9399), is the preferred leading provider of business and financial data on global publicly listed companies. The company is headquartered in New York, NY, and Charlotte, NC, with sales offices in key North American cities as well as London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, and Sydney. Mergent's databases include information on more than 15,000 U.S. public companies and 20,000 non-U.S. public companies in more than 100 countries. Mergent is the publisher of the Dividend Achievers family of indexes including U.S. Broad, Dividend Achievers50, International, High Growth and Canadian. Mergent products and services include Ford Equity Research, independent equity research with buy, sell and hold recommendations; Mergent Online; Mergent Manuals, Handbooks and Investment Guides; EventsData, web-based reporting of corporate actions and events; BondSource, access to municipal and corporate fixed income data and end-of-day evaluation pricing. For more information, visit our websites, www.dividendachievers.com and www.mergent.com

About NASDAQ

NASDAQ is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, its systems trade more shares per day than any other U.S. market. NASDAQ is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at http://www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom at http://www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/.

CONTACT: The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. Media Contact: Wayne Lee 301.978.4875 Issuer and Investor Contact: Lisa Chaney 301.978.8281

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