By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock was up more than 8% in Friday’s premarket trading on news of its inclusion in S&P 500 Index from next week.
Being part of the S&P 500 means passive investors who manage trillions of dollars will have to include it in their portfolios, as it will now be part of more funds and derivatives benchmarked against the index.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was the last noteworthy addition to the index, joining it in late 2020.
The inclusion in the index is another triumph for the biotech company whose pioneering work on so-called messenger RNA has allowed it to bring to market one of the most effective vaccines against COVID-19 vaccine. The company says the mRNA technology may have many other applications including vaccines against other diseases, as well as drugs for heart disease, cancer and rare genetic conditions.
Moderna will replace Alexion Pharmaceuticals in the index before the opening of trade on July 21. Alexion (NASDAQ:ALXN) is set to be acquired by U.K.'s AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN).
Shares of Moderna have more than trebled over the past 12 months, sending the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s market value above $100 billion for the first time this week, according to Bloomberg.