Thomson Reuters Day One: TRI.L Starts To Sing In London

Nobody told Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Finance (it still doesn’t have the updated stock ticker), but Thomson Reuters‘ new TRIL.L listing started trading on the London Stock Exchange at 8am GMT, after their £8.7 billion ($17.1 billion) merger – and immediately fell 80p. The stock recovered after falling from the opening 1,700p per share to hover around 1635p after its first hour.

From the market announcement: “It is proposed that the nominal value of each ordinary share of Thomson (NYSE: TOC) Reuters (NSDQ: RTRSY) Plc be reduced by 975p from £10 to 25p. It is currently expected that, subject to court approval, such reduction will become effective on April 22, 2008.” Perhaps the stock symbol is apt for a newswire that started by using pigeons to fly stock quotes around central Europe (Trill is a bird food).

Reuters News editor-in-chief David Scheslinger, from the company’s blog: “Over the next weeks and months, we will combine the best from the old Reuters news and from Thomson Financial news; we