The UAE bourses rose in early trade on investor speculation of MSCI index inclusion and strong earnings performance with Dubai's index touching a fresh two-month high on Wednesday.

The benchmark rose 1.2 per cent to 1,609 points with investors focus returning to large cap stocks. Emaar Properties gained 2.8 per cent, its 11-week high. Telco du jumped 2.6 per cent.

Arabtec climbed 3.3 per cent, extending gains after a bonus issue. 'It's predominantly retail activity at the moment,' says Julian Bruce, EFG-Hermes director of institutional equity sales.

'There's been a shift from small to large caps, which coincides with the DVP announcement.'

UAE and Qatar bourses are frontier markets awaiting for emerging market status from index compiler MSCI.

UAE markets regulator said Monday it would launch a new settlement system on April 28, and Qatar switched to Delivery Versus Payment (DvP) system on April 11, a key requirement for the country to earn an MSCI emerging market status.-Reuters