Major U.S. stock exchanges are pressing the regulator to allow price quotes in increments as small as one-tenth of a cent, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday.

Stock exchanges, including NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc , said the move would induce electronic traders to trade through their platforms, instead of opting for private trading venues known as dark pools, the paper said.

Dark pools are high-frequency trading platforms where buyers and sellers can anonymously match large blocks of stock, keeping details of the deals and prices concealed to prevent distorting prices in the broader market.

We have had institutions, hedge funds, a broad variety of customers asking for this, Brian Hyndman, senior vice president of transaction services for Nasdaq OMX Group, told the paper.

On January 13 U.S. securities regulators took their first stab at deciding whether rules are needed to curb high-frequency traders, whose lightning-fast computer programs now dominate equities markets.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore)

Investment NYSE Euronext NASDAQ OMX Group