Kuwait's 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 shares were at 0.45 Kuwaiti dinars (Dh5.67) by 0735 GMT, versus 0.95 when they were suspended last year.
"It is premature to judge on the stock performance from the first day of trading. The bank raised its capital in January, stock always fall after capital increase," said Mustafa Behbahani, a director at Kuwait's Gulf Consulting Co.
"This was expected. The stock was halted in the middle of its crisis last year and was not affected."
The bank's shareholders approved in December a rescue plan worked out by the central bank to raise 375 million dinars ($1.29 billion; Dh4.7 billion) in an emergency rights issue to cover derivatives losses of the same amount.
The new shares were sold at 0.30 dinars each and equated to around 31.5 per cent of the bank's pre-issue market cap of 1.19 billion dinars.
Gulf Bank, in which sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) owns a 16 per cent stake, said on Sunday it has elected former KIA head Ali Al Bader as its new chairman.
The resumption of trading and appointment of a new chairman show that the lender has survived the troubles which forced the central bank to rescue it last year, analysts said.
The government guaranteed 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.
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