Euronext is to be formed from the merger of the Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam exchanges, while the Frankfurt and London stock exchanges are considering joining forces to form iX. The President of the Brussels exchange, Oliver Lefebvre, was quoted as saying in Thursday's edition of the financial daily Boersen-Zeitung that while both iX and Euronext were in talks with other markets in and outside Europe, there would be no reason for the two new major players themselves to merge.

Such a move would be "neither desirable nor efficient," Lefebvre told the newspaper. The formation of the two new groupings already entailed huge integration efforts and a simultaneous combination of five or more European exchanges would therefore be almost impossible, he argued.

Furthermore, the players should be aware of the consequences of such a tie-up for competition, the Brussels stock exchange Chief warned. "Should we create a monopoly exchange or should we maintain competition by keeping a number of different centres, especially since the markets nowadays are profit-orientated," Lefebvre asked.

He pointed to the US where competition between the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq over a long period had proved positive for the development of risk capital. "Keeping a certain degree of competition would be sensible for the dynamism of the European market," he argued.

Lefebvre's comments contrasted with remarks made earlier this month by the supervisory board Chief of the German stock exchange, Rolf Breuer, who called for even wider-reaching alliances between the different stock exchanges in Europe than the planned groupings of iX and Euronext. Breuer had said that two different groupings would not be satisfactory and Europe needed a common stock exchange platform.

b`Indonesia's market fall a one day phenomenon'
Indonesia's newly-appointed economic Chief Rizal Ramli Thursday dismissed a disastrous plunge in the country's Financial markets as a one-day phenomenon, and predicted a rebound next week. "I think the market reaction is only a temporary one ... the new economic team is very solid," coordinating minister for the economy Rizal Ramli told a late evening press conference here.

Ramli was replying to a question to whether he had called the conference - also attended by representatives of the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank - mainly to calm the markets. The new minister, a harsh critic of IMF policies, said he had called the conference to "show that international institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and the ADB have agreed to continue their cooperation" for Indonesia's economic recovery. AFP