(Reuters) - Brokerage Morgan Stanley <MS.N> has ceased equity coverage on Tesla Inc <TSLA.O>, potentially a sign the U.S. bank may be doing business directly with the electric carmaker as it explores options to go private.
Goldman Sachs dropped its coverage of Tesla last week shortly before confirming it was acting as a financial adviser on a matter related to the automaker.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk had tweeted early last week that he was working with buyout firm Silver Lake and investment bank Goldman Sachs as advisers in his efforts to secure tens of billions of dollars in funding and take the car maker private.
Morgan Stanley's website showed Tesla had been moved to "Not Rated" from "Equal-weight" on Tuesday.
Neither the bank nor Tesla could immediately be reached for comment.
Separately, Norway's wealth fund, a Tesla investor, said on Tuesday that its rules would allow it to stay on as an investor in the electric carmaker if it delists from the Nasdaq exchange.
Musk has given no details of funding since saying in a blog on Tesla's website a week ago that he was in discussions with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and other potential backers but that financing was not yet nailed down.
He earlier shocked investors and sent Tesla shares soaring on Aug. 7 with a tweet that said "funding secured".
Shares of Tesla were up marginally at $309.50 in trading before the bell on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Sonam Rai and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru, Liana Baker in New York; editing by Patrick Graham)
