Moroccan equities ended the day under pressure on Tuesday as the Moroccan All Shares index dropped 5.63% to register a fresh six-month low. Sector-level weakness in Utilities, Banking and Mining was the primary force behind the decline, and market breadth turned decisively negative.
At the close in Casablanca, losers dominated winners by a wide margin on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, with 59 stocks down versus just 3 advancing.
Top performers
- Realis. Mecaniques (CSE:SRM) led the winners, rising 2.96% - up 12.90 points to close at 448.00.
- S2M (CSE:S2M) gained 0.94% - up 5.00 points to finish at 535.00.
- Sanlam Maroc SA (CSE:SAH) edged higher by 0.05% - gaining 1.00 point to end at 2,085.00.
Largest declines
- Fenie Brossette (CSE:FBR) was the session's heaviest loser, falling 10.00% - down 31.05 points to close at 279.50.
- Alliances (CSE:ADI) also dropped 10.00% - losing 44.00 points to end at 396.15. The stock fell to 52-week lows in the session.
- Stokvis Nord Afrique (CSE:SNA) declined 9.99% - down 7.06 points to finish at 63.60.
Sector performance was skewed toward losses, with Utilities, Banking and Mining cited as the main contributors to the overall market decline. The concentration of declines left the market with a heavily negative breadth reading, underscoring the broad nature of selling during the session.
In commodities trading, contract prices moved materially. Crude oil for April delivery rose 8.40%, an increase of 5.98 to $77.21 a barrel. Brent oil for May delivery gained 7.99% - up 6.21 to $83.95 a barrel. By contrast, the April Gold Futures contract fell 3.53%, down 187.36 to trade at $5,124.24 a troy ounce.
Currency pairs involving the Moroccan dirham also shifted. EUR/MAD was down 0.13% at 10.80, while USD/MAD rose 1.01% to 9.32. The US Dollar Index Futures advanced 0.93% to 99.25.
The market's internal dynamics - a handful of small winners against a large number of declines - and the move to a six-month low for the All Shares index underline the day's risk-off tone. The session's results left several large-cap and sector-exposed names lower, and one major listed group, Alliances (CSE:ADI), at 52-week lows.