Zain extends losses; Kuwait index slips

Zain falls for a second day, helping to drag Kuwait's index lower. Zain slips 1.5 per cent. It is down 5.7 percent since Sunday, when investment firm Securities Group Co said it was studying a bid to buy a stake of up to 24.6 percent stake in the telecom firm held by Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund.

In September, Zain shareholder Kuwaiti conglomerate Kharafi Group began looking at how to raise its stake in the group after agreeing to sell 46 percent of Zain to a consortium led by India's Vavasi Group and including telecoms firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, and Malaysian billionaire Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary. The deal would be the biggest overseas acquisition into the Middle East, worth about $14 billion dollars. Kuwait's index falls 0.1 percent to 7,660 points.