KUWAIT - Kuwait Stock Exchange plans to divide its stock market into three market segments from April 1 in a bid to boost liquidity for investors, a regulatory official said on Thursday.

The bourse will also introduce new rules for listings on the same day, Abdulrahman al-Failakawi, the representative of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA). told reporters. The three market segments will be known as the premier market, the main market and the auction market. It will replace the current market.

The premier market would be home to relatively larger and more liquid listed companies, Boursa Kuwait has said in the past.

Kuwait, which aims to list its stock exchange and will enter the FTSE secondary emerging market index in September, is trying to reform its stock market which has suffered from low liquidity and delistings in the past.

Established officially in the early 1980s, the Kuwaiti bourse, with a market capitalisation of about $90 billion, is one of the oldest in the Middle East.

(Reporting by Haggagy Ahmed; Editing by Saeed Azhar) ((Saeed.Azhar@thomsonreuters.com; +971 44536787; Reuters Messaging: saeed.azhar.reuters.com@reuters.net))