SECURITIES

SEC Approves Nasdaq Listing Proposal: The National Assn. of Securities Dealers said the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved rules intended to strengthen the exchange’s authority to bar the listing of some firms. Nasdaq spokesman James Spellman said the exchange sought the rules “as a fraud protection device, but also to underscore the integrity of our market.” Spellman said the rules might be used, for example, to prevent the listing of a company that met Nasdaq’s numerical criteria but whose board included people with a history of securities or commodities law violations. The NASD runs the computer-screen-based Nasdaq, the nation’s second-largest stock market, on which more than 4,700 issues are traded.