(a) Any component stock of a standardized market basket shall be exempt from the registration requirement of section 12(a) of the Act, solely for the purpose of inclusion in a standardized market basket, provided that all of the following terms and conditions are met:

(1) The standardized market basket has been duly approved by the Commission for listing on a national securities exchange pursuant to the requirements of section 19(b) of the Act; and

(2) The stock is an NMS stock as defined in §242.600 of this chapter and is either:

(i) Listed and registered for trading on a national securities exchange by the issuer or

(ii) Quoted on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System;

(b) When used in this rule, the term standardized market basket means a group of at least 100 stocks purchased or sold in a single execution and at a single trading location with physical delivery and transfer of ownership of each component stock resulting from such execution.

[56 FR 28322, June 20, 1991, as amended at 70 FR 37618, June 29, 2005]