JOINING THE CLUB

Qwest Communications International Inc. shares rose as much as 11% on Tuesday after the fifth-largest U.S. long-distance phone company said it will be added to the Nasdaq 100 Index, a club growing in stature as it clobbers the Standard & Poor’s in performance this year.

Qwest shares climbed $2.94 to close at $34.31 in heavy trading on Nasdaq.

Qwest will be added Friday to the index, made up of the Nasdaq Stock Market’s largest 100 nonfinancial companies, and mutual funds that track the index’s performance might have to buy the stock, increasing demand for the shares. The announcement marks upstart Qwest’s rise into the ranks of the country’s fastest-growing companies.

“This is a pretty elite group Qwest is joining,” said Blake Bath, an analyst at Lehman Bros. Inc., who has a “strong buy” rating on the stock. “I don’t expect this is the last index it’ll be added to.”

Leading members of the index include Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Dell Computer Corp. The Denver-based company will replace phone-equipment maker DSC Communications Corp., set to be acquired by France’s Alcatel Alsthom.

Qwest is building a nationwide fiber-optic network, expected to be completed in mid-1999.

So far this year, the Nasdaq 100 has risen about 41%, compared with a 14% gain on the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Qwest shares are up about 15%.

Companies in the Nasdaq 100 must have a market value of more than $500 million and an average daily trading volume of 100,000 shares.