Shareholders in the London Stock Exchange are expected to support the bourse's decision to buy Milan-based Borsa Italiana, LSE Chief Executive Clara Furse said on Wednesday.

We expect shareholders to support this transaction, Furse told Reuters.

If you look at this transaction from a shareholder perspective, it's an attractive proposition, Furse said.

The U.S. Nasdaq stock exchange owns 30 percent of the LSE, following a failed bid for Europe's biggest share market.

LSE shares fell as much as 8 percent on Monday amid speculation that Nasdaq might oppose the deal to buy Borsa Italiana, or might abandon its interest in a bid for the LSE and sell its 30 percent stake.

At 0937 GMT, shares in LSE were down 0.5 percent at 1,316 pence, in line with the FTSE 100 index.

The LSE said on Saturday it had signed a deal to acquire the Milan bourse for 1.6 billion euros ($2.15 billion), the latest in a series of moves to consolidate the world's exchanges.

Furse, in Belgium for a conference, said there were no plans to sell the combined company's MTS bond-trading platform, which dominates trading in euro zone government bonds and is currently part of Borsa Italiana, if the deal is completed.

Our interest would not be to sell it, Furse said.

Inter-dealer broking company ICAP, led by Michael Spencer, also wants to buy MTS, a source familiar with the matter has said.

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