Written by: Editorial Staff on March 10, 2012.on March 9, 2012.
The MORALSI shed -0.6% over the week to 11,367.5. Declines from Taslif (-12.2%), SCE (-10.6%), Involys (-6.3%), IB Maroc Com (-6.0%) and Fenie Brossette (-5.2%) edged the market lower despite gains from Fertima (+32.7%), Zellidja (+14.6%), Delattre Levivier (+7.8%), CDM (+5.3%) and Maghreb Oxygene (+5.1%). Alliances, SMI, and Maroc Telecom were the week’s top traders, exchanging MAD 83.9m (USD 10.0m), MAD 39.1m (USD 4.6m) and MAD 32.2m (USD 3.8m) worth of shares respectively. Together they accounted for 57% of a total of MAD 273.9m (USD 32.5m) for the week compared to MAD 192.2m from the previous week. The MORALSI is up +3.1% (+4.7% in USD terms) YTD and total market cap is USD 62.4bn.
Morocco’s National Institute for Agricultural Research has report that the country’s cereals harvest this year will not reach half of last year’s level and will increase the burden of imports on the country’s already frail balance of payments. The head of the institute, Mohamed Badraoui stated that he didn’t think the harvest would exceed 4m tonnes this year compared to 8.4m tonnes from last year. Morocco’s domestic cereal needs do not exceed 7m tonnes however a large portion of it is subsistence of which some is of too poor a quality to mill. Meanwhile, the head of the country’s sole sugar refiner reported that the domestic output of sugar beet and cane in 2012 may account for less than 30% of domestic sugar needs they covered last year. The decline in output comes at a sensitive time for Morocco’s USD 100bn economy which relies on agriculture for 14% of its output. Higher raw sugar and cereal imports are going to weigh on Morocco’s widening balance of payments deficit, which had grown to its largest in 2011 amid falling exports to the euro zone, Morocco’s main trading partner. Agriculture also employs 40% of Morocco’s workforce of 11 million.
Source:African Alliance
Posted by Editorial Staff on March 10,
2012.
