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Ringing the Bell for Texas

April 29, 2016

On a recent trip to New York City, I was delighted to be asked to ring the closing bell at Nasdaq, the world's second-largest equities exchange. It's a ritual that signifies the daily end of trading in companies valued at nearly $9 trillion. You can see a video of the ceremony and additional photos at Nasdaq's website.

Since its creation in 1971, Nasdaq has become almost synonymous with technology firms, although many other industries are represented among the 3,100-plus companies traded there. It was the first exchange to introduce electronic trading, and today represents giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google.

I'm proud to say that Texas companies have a large and rapidly growing share of the action at Nasdaq, such as Texas Instruments, which has nearly $60 billion in equities on offer. In all, companies from our state contribute nearly $196 billion to the market's total present value, and the number of Texas IPOs tied to Nasdaq is growing by an average of more than 50 percent annually.

But I'm also happy to see how Texas' participation in Nasdaq showcases our increasing diversity. Energy, our traditional mainstay, accounts for about a fifth of Texas companies listed on Nasdaq, but finance is nearly as important, and technology, health care and consumer services all account for substantial shares as well.

In all, it's an impressive demonstration of the sheer variety and ingenuity of Texas business, a diversity that has greatly added to the resilience of our economy — and is keeping us growing despite depressed energy prices.

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Thank you for all you do for Texas, and God bless,

Glenn Hegar