By Antoni Slodkowski
TOKYO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Most brokerages and investors trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange want the bourse to keep its lunch break and oppose an extension of business hours, the bourse's chief executive said on Friday.
In a bid to make it more competitive against rival bourses in Asia, the exchange is looking at either shortening or eliminating the lunch break as well as establishing an evening session for cash equities and extending evening trade for derivatives.
While some people thought longer hours would bring Tokyo in line with London and New York, around 70 percent of those who took part in discussions about the proposal were against eliminating the 90-minute lunch break, Tokyo Stock Exchange CEO Atsushi Saito told a briefing.
He also said most did not seem interested in longer trade into the evening. The exchange will make a decision by the end of the year.
"Abolishment of the break would decrease opportunities to make large block trades and would result in a drop in liquidity and convenience," said Saito, citing concerns expressed by investors.
In Tokyo, brokers match large-lot orders from institutional investors at the beginning and the end of the morning and afternoon sessions. Eliminating the break would halve the number of times for matching the orders to two and hurt liquidity, he said.
Cash trading at the Tokyo exchange begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. with a lunch break between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The bourse scrapped proposals in 2007 and 2009 to lengthen trading hours.
Extending trading hours could be expensive for major brokerages, such as Nomura Holdings Inc and Daiwa Securities Group, as they may have to scramble to change trading systems and deploy more staff. (Editing by Edwina Gibbs)