Trading at the Kuwait Stock Exchange, the second largest Arab bourse, was halted Thursday following an unprecedented court order aimed at curbing the market's declines and preventing massive losses among small investors.
"The administrative court ordered that trading be suspended immediately at the bourse until November 17 when the court will sit again to look into the issue," said the ruling, according to AFP. Thursday is the last trading day of the week in Kuwait, where the bourse has been trading at 40-month lows over concerns about a global recession and problems at a local bank.
The court issued its ruling after a lawsuit filed by lawyer Adel Abdulhadi on behalf of an investor who claimed he had incurred heavy losses on the Kuwait market over the past few weeks.
When trading was halted, the KSE Index had shed 1.8 percent, dragged down by the banks and investment sectors. The bourse has been trading at 40-month lows.
Traders welcomed the decision with shouts of "long live small traders, thank you lawyer," AFP said. Last month, Kuwaiti investors demonstrated for four days in a row, calling for government intervention to stop the slide in the market which has seen around 100 billion dollars wiped off its value since late June.
According to the court ruling, the order was issued to spare investors from heavy losses, finding that the bourse management failed to take any measures to boost the flagging bourse. The lawsuit was filed against the prime minister, the commerce minister who is the head of the bourse committee and the director general of the bourse, court papers showed.
Since June 24, when the KSE Index hit an all-time peak of 15,654 points, the Kuwaiti market has lost more than 43 percent.
