LONDON (Reuters) - The shareholders of Turquoise remain committed to the new share-trading platform set up by big investment banks, its chief executive, Eli Lederman, told Reuters on Thursday.

"The Bank of America's proposed takeover of Merrill Lynch would do nothing to dilute their interest and there's every indication given to me that their shareholding is unaffected by this type of corporate activity," he said.

The nine banks backing Turquoise include Merrill Lynch MER.N and Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Earlier, shares in Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research) rose more than 10 percent, with traders citing increased volume and speculation that investors could move away from alternative trading platforms such as Turquoise to more established ones.

"On the one hand (investment banks) financed Turquoise. On the other hand they put volume on the platform so if some of them disappear then ... the investor will disappear as well as the broker who puts volume on the platform," said Reginald Veit, an analyst at Oppenheim.

"To think about what could happen with Turquoise, Chi-X and others is a long-term opportunity for Deutsche Boerse to gain market share back," he added.

Bank of America (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said earlier this week it had agreed to buy Merrill, the world's largest retail brokerage.

Morgan Stanley was discussing a deal with U.S. regional banking powerhouse Wachovia WB.N, according to a source familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for Turquoise said trading continues to be "very good" and it remains on target to win 5 percent of European volume by the year end.

(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova, additional reporting by Sarah Marsh in Frankfurt; Editing by Paul Bolding)