The shares in bourse operator Dubai Financial Market were up 4 per cent on Monday amid investor hope that it will return to 2009 highs along with other local stocks - and also bet on an eventual merger with the Abu Dhabi bourse on favourable terms.

"People are expecting the merger," says Feras Al Zghaibi, financial markets strategist at MENA Corp. "And technically it hasn't reached the 2009 highs while most of the leading stocks are above their 2009 levels."

DFM, which is now trading at 2.32 dirhams per share, had reached 2.72 dirhams before the global crisis in 2009, he says.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai have hired banks to advise on a possible merger of their two main stock exchanges in a state-backed deal, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters in October.-Reuters