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Activision Blizzard shares up as Santa Monica company to debut on S&P 500

Video game publisher and developer Activision Blizzard Inc. climbed 5.4% during early trading on Wall Street on Friday ahead of its debut in the S&P 500.

After the closing bell, the Santa Monica-based company will join Electronic Arts to become the second gaming company on the benchmark index, a sampling of U.S. industry that serves as a bellwether for the national economy.

An S&P Dow Jones Indices committee replaced water-filter maker Pall Corp. on the index with Activision. Pall is being acquired.

The company behind “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft” saw a bump of more than 6.