Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest equity market, plans to automate the opening of some shares while relying on floor specialists to handle more actively traded issues.

``Our goal is to be open earlier for all stocks, and the first step in that is to open a subset of stocks automatically on a quote,'' NYSE Euronext Executive Vice President Larry Leibowitz said in an interview today. ``It's a matter of efficiency.''

Specialists on the floor of the NYSE typically take several minutes to manually open trading in all their assigned stocks. By opening some stocks electronically, the exchange will start trading more shares closer to the official 9:30 a.m. open and the specialists will be able to focus on issues where there is an imbalance between buy and sell orders, Leibowitz said.

The NYSE has cut transaction times by more than 60 percent this year amid increased competition from all-electronic competitors including Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and Bats Trading Inc. An automated open for some of the NYSE's 2,700 listed companies may prevent investors from routing their trades away from the Big Board during the first half hour of the session, which according to Bloomberg data accounts for about 13 percent of daily volume.

The NYSE will introduce the procedures next week with a limited number of stocks, Leibowitz said at the Security Traders Association's annual conference in Boca Raton, Florida. The exchange will also resume posting indicated prices that tell investors where a stock is likely to open.

``Stocks that don't have orders will open right way, and stocks that do have orders will open faster because the specialists can pay attention to them,'' Leibowitz said.

`Fairly Disruptive'

Investors often send orders to competing markets when the opening of a stock is delayed. Opening stocks at different times has also resulted in erroneous trades.

Nasdaq, the second-biggest U.S. equity market, gained regulatory approval in May to open trading on Big Board issues with an electronic auction similar to the one performed by NYSE specialists. Nasdaq last month matched about 16 percent of NYSE- listed shares, and currently uses its so-called opening cross to handle 30 stocks listed on the American Stock Exchange.

``It's great that they are going to open the market at 9:30 because it's fairly disruptive right now,'' Christopher Concannon, head of Nasdaq's execution services, said today in an interview. ``Having a random open is unhealthy for both us and investors.''

NYSE Euronext shares fell 10 cents to $81.55 in New York trading, while Nasdaq rose $1.43, or 3.7 percent, to $40.50. For the year, NYSE Euronext has declined 16 percent, compared with a 32 percent gain for Nasdaq.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edgar Ortega in New York at ebarrales@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 5, 2007 17:09 EDT