It is a general principle of markets in London and other advanced financial centres that they remain open where possible, no matter how they do things in Vienna or Moscow, both of which have closed temporarily.

Investors must be allowed to get their money out or, alternatively, to decide that carnage in the markets represents a never-to-be-repeated buying opportunity.

The view of the London Stock Exchange is that, providing there is an orderly market and all those trading are in the know, markets should stay open. London shut on September 8 precisely because large chunks of the market were out of the loop because of a computer glitch and this was clearly unfair.

Now Silvio Berlusconi has floated the idea that markets might be closed for the duration of the financial crisis — however long that might be. The Italian Prime Minister admitted that the “hypothesis” had been raised, but said there was, as yet, nothing concrete.

This week, as the concerted cut in world interest rates was being hammered out, there was, indeed, the suggestion that markets generally should take a breather. Bad idea. The Milan market is, of course, owned by the London Stock Exchange and the London view should prevail there.

It is not clear what legal right world leaders such as Mr Berlusconi have to shut their local exchanges.

In Italy it falls within the ambit of Consob, the Italian regulator. Presumably, legislation could be framed anywhere to shift this responsibility on to governments — but it is a temptation to be resisted.

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