[Standard and Poor's ](http://www.standardandpoors.com)announced that Red Hat would join the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on Friday. Red Hat replaces lender CIT Group, which had a market capitalization below $275 million, ranking it 500th in the index.

The market seemed to like the S&P news. In after hours trading Friday, Red Hat was up 8.45 percent to $22.34.

Red Hat, the fast-growing provider of open source software solutions to enterprise customers, will be added to the S&P 500 GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) Systems Software Sub-Industry index.

The company has been aggressively pursuing new opportunities to help companies interested in Linux and open source adoption including the latest trend toward [cloud computing]().

Red Hat recently announced a [cloud certification program](/dev-news/article.php/3828346/Cisco%20Red%20Hat%20in%20the%20Cloud%20Friends%20or%20Enemies.htm) and enlisted Amazon as a partner.