Trading activity on the Milan stock exchange should not be affected by an unprecedented strike called for the last two working hours of Thursday, owner Euronext said.

Italian banking sector trade unions announced last week the first ever strike at Borsa Italiana, the Milan exchange, accusing Euronext of "constant, systematic and overall disinvestment from Italy".

Euronext - which also runs stock markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Oslo and Paris - completed its acquisition of the Italian stock exchange in April 2021.

The strike has been called for 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (1330-1530 GMT) but Euronext said it expects business as usual.

"Systems are automated and all run on a single Euronext Optiq group trading platform and there are the usual active protocols for any emergency," said a Euronext-Borsa Italiana spokesperson.

Traders too do not expect any impact on the normal market activity.

"The only problem could arise if there is a crash, such as a server going down, a disruption or a technical issue," a trader said.

On the eve of the strike, trade unions were discussing details of their plans with their members among Borsa Italiana employees. There are in total around 700 employees working at the Milan bourse. (Reporting by Giancarlo Navach Editing by Keith Weir)