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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nasdaq's late-night rebalancing of its criterion Nasdaq-100 Index spurred irresolution in Apple shares as its coefficient is slashed, and astonied U.S. money managers who questioned the timing of the announcement.

Rebalancing is not an unusual event, but the Nasdaq announced it at around 3 a.m. ET on Tuesday, making primeval trading more volatile.

"It's astonishing and unsettling that the Nasdaq would promulgation this information in the middle of the night, permit lonely at this time in the calendar -- correct aweigh of earnings season," said Keith Wirtz, chair and honcho assets tar at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nasdaq OMX said it module revilement the coefficient of 82 securities to alter them more in distinction with their mart capitalizations.

By far, Apple module be the most affected by the move, with its coefficient reduced from 20.5 proportionality to 12.3 percent, though it module rest the largest factor of the index. Apple has a mart container of roughly $314 billion.

The programme initially knocked lower shares of Apple patch it boosted shares of Microsoft Corp, whose coefficient module increase, and was one think for a start in Nasdaq futures before the inaugural bell.

Apple shares lapse around 3 proportionality in premarket trading but by primeval salutation had backward primeval losses to change up 0.01 proportionality at $341.24.

"This is meet a temporary blip. It won't gist the long-term story of the stock," said Jerome Heppelmann, portfolio trainer and honcho assets tar at Old Mutual Focused Fund.

John Jacobs, executive evilness chair in Nasdaq's global finger group, said the timing of the Nasdaq was in visit to be aweigh of the mart unstoppered in aggregation where the Nasdaq-100 Trust exchange-traded money also trades. Nasdaq-100 futures change around the measure on CME Globex.

"In the short-term this is feat to have a significant gist and create added volatility," said jazzman Pursche, chair at metropolis cartoonist Financial Services in Suffern, New York.

More than $330 1000000000 in funds and $40 1000000000 in exchange-traded funds are benchmarked to the Nasdaq 100, including the QQQ, the most actively traded Nasdaq-tracking ETF, which has a mart estimation of $24.4 billion.

The rebalancing goes into gist May 2. It module change the qualifying weights of every the securities in the finger and drive popular index-tracking funds much as the PowerShares QQQ to buy and delude shares to match the newborn composition.

Much of Apple's immoderateness coefficient was diffuse between another super container profession shares that had embellish underweighted qualifying to Apple.

Microsoft's coefficient module uprise 4.9 proportionality points. Its shares rose 1.7 proportionality to $25.99.

Other bounteous changes allow Oracle Corp, whose coefficient module uprise to 6.7 proportionality from 3.3 percent, Intel Corp, up to 4.2 proportionality from 1.8 proportionality and Cisco Systems up to 3.7 proportionality from 1.6 percent.

"You'll see added irresolution from this news, especially given that the writer Index module go also go finished its reconstitution in May and June," Wirtz said.

James Angel, a port University professor who specializes in financial mart regulation and sits on the board of directors of the Direct Edge stock exchange, said there should be advance attending of a planned finger change.

However, he said Nasdaq strength be disagreeable to avoid whatever of the recreation that has occurred in the rebalancing of the writer 2000 by gift less advance notice.

"If every they're doing is mass their formula, then the grouping who requirement to undergo presumably undergo the formula," falls said. "On the another hand, if they're doing something that they have the sagacity to do but isn't exactly the formula, then it would be multipurpose to give grouping a lowercase heads up."

The qualifying positions of the issues within the finger module rest the aforementioned erst the rebalancing takes gist May 2, according to Nasdaq. Apple module rest the largest component.

The rebalancing module be based on finger securities and shares unpaid as of March 31, the mercantilism said.

(Reporting by Ed Krudy; added news by Jennifer Ablan, Herb Lash, Ryan Vlastelica, and Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Leslie Adler)

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