Bahrain's stock exchange will consider partnering with another bourse to lift dwindling liquidity in the wake of the regional unrest, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing the exchange's director.

Bahrain's stock market has been plagued with low levels of trading due to the bourse's makeup which includes institutions that trade infrequently. But the unrest has pushed volumes even lower, Fouad Rahman Rashid, director of the bourse told The National.

"It will be important to bring in a strategic partner but all options are open right now," he said. "We have to find ways to see an improvement in liquidity [and] we are addressing this."

Bahrain has been struggling with protests and political unrest that has prompted credit downgrades of the small state, forced the market to shut briefly and shuttered financial operations over the last month.-Reuters