Standard & Poor's Lowers Market-Value Guidelines for S&P 500

By Chan Tien Hin

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Standard & Poor's cut the market- value ranges for inclusion in its three main U.S. indexes after this year's rout wiped $1.8 trillion off the nation's shares.

Companies that join the Standard & Poor's 500 Index must be worth $4 billion or more, it said in a statement yesterday, down from at least $5 billion. The S&P MidCap 400's range was lowered to between $1 billion and $4.5 billion from $1.5 billion to $5.5 billion earlier. The changes became effective yesterday.

The S&P SmallCap 600 guideline is now $250 million to $1.5 billion, compared with $300 million to $2 billion before.

The S&P 500 is down 18 percent this year on concern more than $521 billion in credit losses and writedowns at financial firms globally and a slowing economy are curbing profits.

S&P, a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos., uses the figures as guidelines, not requirements, for index inclusion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chan Tien Hin in Kuala Lumpur thchan@bloomberg.net