NYSE to Quote Prices in Sixteenths Next Week

The New York Stock Exchange expects to start quoting stock prices in sixteenths of a dollar sometime next week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, NYSE executives said. The move, which was expected, seeks to enable investors to obtain better stock prices by narrowing the minimum difference between the buying and selling price of a stock, possibly at the expense of dealer profit. The Big Board, the nation’s largest stock exchange, received approval Friday from the Securities and Exchange Commission to start quoting shares in sixteenths, or 6.25 cents, rather than eighths, or 12.5 cents. The Big Board’s move will enable the NYSE to join the Nasdaq Stock Market and the American Stock Exchange in quoting stocks in sixteenths. The NYSE decided earlier this month to move to decimal quotes, or dollars and cents, by January 2000, while using sixteenths as an interim measure.