RIYADH, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The Kuwait Stock Exchange has selected a new chairman for its board of directors, following the appointment of its previous chairman as oil minister in December, it said in a statement on Saturday.

The bourse named as chairman Mohammed Ahmed Alsaqqaf, a member of the board's executive committee and nomination and remuneration committee.

Kuwait's emir appointed previous chairman Essam Abdul Mohsen al-Marzouq to head the oil ministry after opposition candidates won around half of the parliament's 50 seats last month, a rebuke of austerity measures brought on by low oil prices.

(Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Dale Hudson) ((Katie.Paul@thomsonreuters.com;))