The Casablanca market finished the trading day in negative territory on Friday, with the Moroccan All Shares index ending the session down 0.19%.
Sectors that underperformed included Utilities, Banking and Mining, contributing to the overall downward bias. Market breadth favored falling issues: 34 stocks lost ground while 19 advanced and 8 finished unchanged on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
Among individual performers, M2M Group (CSE:M2M) led gains, climbing 9.82% - an increase of 41.95 points - to close at 468.95. SMI (CSE:SMI) also posted solid gains, rising 4.97% or 276.00 points to finish at 5,826.00. Realis. Mecaniques (CSE:SRM) added 4.12%, up 18.95 points, to end the session at 478.95.
On the downside, Taqa Morocco SA (CSE:TQM) registered the largest decline, falling 4.55% or 90.00 points to close at 1,890.00. Micro Data SA (CSE:MIC) slipped 4.05%, down 33.50 points to 794.50, and Involys (CSE:INV) was lower by 3.46% or 6.10 points, finishing at 170.00.
Commodities saw mixed action. Crude oil for April delivery traded down 0.59%, a drop of 0.39, to $66.01 a barrel, while Brent oil for April fell 0.57% or 0.41 to $71.25 a barrel. Precious metals moved higher, with the April Gold Futures contract gaining 1.43% or 71.46 to trade at $5,068.86 a troy ounce.
Foreign-exchange indicators were also active. EUR/MAD was reported at 10.79, with a change noted as 0.04%, while USD/MAD rose 0.07% to 9.17. The US Dollar Index Futures declined 0.28% to 97.58.
Promotional performance claims for a portfolio selection service were also presented alongside the market report. The product description indicates the service's AI model curates multiple stock portfolios, stating that year-to-date two out of three global portfolios are outperforming their benchmark indexes and that 88% of portfolios are in positive territory. The description highlights a flagship strategy called Tech Titans that reportedly outperformed the S&P 500 over an 18-month period, citing example gains for named holdings including Super Micro Computer (+185%) and AppLovin (+157%).
Trading in Casablanca was characterized by a greater number of losers than winners and a modest pullback in the headline index, while commodity and currency moves showed both upward and downward shifts.
Market snapshot: Moroccan All Shares -0.19%; breadth 34 down, 19 up, 8 unchanged; oil and Brent lower; gold futures higher; EUR/MAD 10.79; USD/MAD 9.17; US Dollar Index Futures 97.58.