(Bloomberg) -- Some of the biggest exchanges in Europe have poured cold water on proposals to shorten the equities trading day, undermining a campaign to give traders a better work-life balance.

The Federation of European Securities Exchanges, which represents venues including Deutsche Boerse AG and Euronext NV, said in a statement Wednesday that cutting hours would be detrimental to European markets and investors.

“The Covid crisis has shown that investors need transparent price formation and the flexibility to trade early and late in the day,” Rainer Riess, director general at FESE, said in a telephone interview. “The overlap with Asia and the U.S. really matters because of higher liquidity.”

The rejection comes weeks after London Stock Exchange Group Plc, which has the world’s longest market day, said most traders it surveyed favored shorter hours. The LSE has said it would await responses from other European bourses before acting on calls from some of the world’s biggest investors to shorten market hours to improve traders’ health and inject diversity into a largely male profession.

Euronext’s own consultation closed for responses on June 30. A spokeswoman said the company will release its findings this month with a detailed assessment of the impact of any change.

“We fully agree with FESE’s position,” said a Deutsche Boerse spokesman. “European exchanges provide crucial functions to the real economy. Important mechanisms for conducting transactions and price formation, as well as risk and asset transfers, would be restricted in the course of a shortening of trading hours.”

London’s trading day runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. while European exchanges vary.

FESE also said:

  • Current trading hours in Europe allow investors to manage their positions and risks over the day in very liquid, transparent and efficient central limit order books.
  • Europe’s trading day provides for interaction with other global markets.
  • The length of the trading day in Europe does not directly affect working hours, as firms provide other services outside equity markets. Employee well-being could be improved in other ways within companies.

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