Owens-Illinois to join the S&P 500 index

12/24/2008

Owens-Illinois Inc., a Perrysburg glass container maker, will be added to the widely watched Standard & Poor s 500 index next week.

S&P announced Wednesday that the suburban Toledo firm, also a Fortune 500 company, would join the index, replacing Wachovia Corp., a West Coast bank that is being acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. The change occurs after stock trading closes on Dec. 31.

The index, which consists of 500 firms and is diversified in types of companies, is considered a key stock measure to investors nationwide and is used to make market investments by some pension funds, mutual funds, and institutional investors.

S&P also said Wednesday that Libbey Inc., a Toledo firm which makes table glasses and other tableware, will be removed from a lesser known index of smaller companies called the SmallCap 600. It will be replaced after Dec. 31 by Independent Bank Corp.

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