Moroccan Dirham Strengthens Against Dollar, Slips Versus Euro in August

During this period, no auction operation was carried out on the foreign exchange market, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) indicates, while specifying that as of August 19, 2021, the outstanding official reserve assets stood at 300.9 billion dirhams (MMDH), up 0.5% week-on-week and 2.4% year-on-year, the same source said.

BAM reports that an amount of 93.2 MMDH was injected, including 39.5 MMDH in the form of 7-day advances on call for tenders and 29.8 MMDH in the form of repurchase agreements, during the same period. Similarly, 23.9 MMDH were injected as part of the support programs for SME financing.

On the interbank market, the average daily trading volume stood at 2.8 MMDH. As for the interbank rate, it stood at an average of 1.5%. At the call for tenders on August 25 (value date August 26), the central bank injected 39 MMDH in the form of 7-day advances.

On the stock market, the MASI appreciated by 0.3%, thus bringing its underperformance since the beginning of the year to 12.1%. This development is explained by the increases in the indices of the distribution sectors by 1.4%, of the building and construction materials by 1.1% and of the banks by 0.3%. Conversely, the indices of the beverage and transport services sectors fell by 3.3% and 0.9% respectively.

As for the overall trading volume, it amounted to 205.8 million dirhams (MDH), after 380.8 million dirhams (MDH) the previous week. As for the average daily volume on the central equity market, it stood at 51.1 MDH against 76.1 MDH the previous week.