A court on Sunday ordered the Kuwait Stock Exchange to resume trading after accepting a government appeal against an earlier ruling that halted trading for two sessions, a legal source said. In an unprecedented ruling, the Kuwaiti administrative court ordered the stock exchange to halt trading until November 17, less than an hour after it opened on Thursday, in a bid to stem heavy losses incurred by small investors. However the government asked the court to review the ruling urgently on Sunday after Commerce and Industry Minister Ahmad Baqer, who also heads the KSE committee, said the decision had hurt the Kuwaiti economy. Trading will now resume on Monday because working hours at the bourse were over for the day when the ruling was announced. The administrative court will on Monday examine a lawsuit filed by an investor who said he suffered heavy losses because of a sharp slide by the KSE Index over the past two months. The court can still issue a ruling to close the bourse again or it can throw out the case entirely. The KSE, the second largest Arab bourse, has dropped around 45 per cent since June 24 when it hit an all-time high of around 15,600 points. It is also 30 per cent off last year's close. Like other stock markets in the neighbouring oil-rich Gulf states, the slide at the KSE accelerated over the past two months on investor fears about the impact of the global financial crisis. *AFP
