Shares in Kuwait's Gulf Bank will resume trading on Tuesday after being suspended late last year, state news agency Kuna reported, after the lender appointed a new chairman.

'The central bank decides to resume the trading in shares of Gulf Bank starting the day after tomorrow,' Kuna said.

 The central bank halted trading in Gulf Bank in October until the end of a restructuring plan ordered by the government after the bank was hit by losses from currency derivative trades.

Gulf Bank, in which sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) owns a 16 percent stake, appointed former KIA head Ali Al-Bader as its new chairman, the lender said earlier on Sunday in a statement on the bourse website.

Al-Bader replaces Qutaiba Al-Ghanem who did not run again for the post he held for just six months.

Shareholders approved in December a rescue plan worked out by the central bank to raise 375 million dinars ($1.29 billion) in an emergency rights issue to cover derivatives losses of the same amount.

Gulf Bank's troubles prompted the government last year to guarantee all deposits in Kuwaiti banks in a bid to restore confidence and calm fears that the sector's exposure to the global credit crisis ran deeper than first thought. - Reuters