A Difficult Month for Casablanca Stock Exchange Market

Although the Moroccan All Shares Index (MASI) saw a slight increase Tuesday, with a 0.88 percent gain, it is closing February with a 2.47 percent decline, putting an end to five months of increases since September 2016.

Going back to April 2010, the MASI saw a similar trend of growth which ended at the time because of the mechanical decline in May, relating to the detachment of dividends from large corporations like Maroc Telecom.

On that occasion, the decline lasted a few weeks before the market picked up again toward the direction of new annual highs. The record is still held by 2006 and its 9 consecutive months of increases.        

January 2017 saw the highest increase in the stock exchange market, 8 months of consecutive increases from July 2016. It came to a sudden stop this February with four weeks in the red and one balanced.

One thing is certain, however, the market always buys. While this decline can be worrisome for some, it is absolutely normal if one refers to the statistics above and does not question the appetite of investors for equities for the recorded stalls. Even the most violent ones were accompanied by moderately high volumes.

Moreover, the monthly balance of purchase/sales volumes shifts acutely to the purchase side with 67 percent. Other favorable elements come from the graphic indicators which remain well oriented in the medium and long term with heavy moving averages still bullish, supporting the index.

That said, some primordial sectors, such as banking, show increasingly deteriorated technical configurations, while medium cap companies retain stronger ones.

The stock exchange market has entered a new era where its growth is mainly driven by the annual results of companies. If a flutter was observed with the first MASI publication, that of Maroc Telecom (+ 2.22 percent today and just over 3 percent since the publication of its results Monday) seems to give confidence to investors.

Source :Morocco World News