Markets must remain open, exchange federation says

ROME (Reuters) - Market trading must not be suspended as a way to cope with global financial turmoil, the board of directors of the World Federation of Exchanges said on Sunday.

"The world's exchange leaders strongly reaffirm the principle that equities and equity-related exchanges remain open throughout this period," it said in a statement.

The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), whose members account for more than 97 percent of world stock market capitalization, is holding meetings in Milan this week.

The White House on Sunday knocked down a British newspaper report that the United States was considering suspending trading in bank stocks along with other leading industrial nations, saying there was no change in U.S. policy against market intervention.

Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported that trading in banking shares across the Group of Seven leading industrial nations, or G7, could be suspended on Monday as governments tried to halt the financial crisis spreading around the globe.

The G7 is made up of the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Great Britain and Italy.

WFE chairman Massimo Capuano was quoted earlier on Sunday discarding the idea of halting markets.

"One must always allow the possibility of exchanging shares for cash, because this is a release valve for tension," said Capuano, who is also the chief executive of Milan's Borsa Italiana and deputy chief executive of the London Stock Exchange.

"Above all, blocking negotiations on regulated markets would not stop trades from taking place elsewhere, in a context of less transparency," he told Italy's leading financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Gerald E. McCormick)