Moroccan Dirham Strengthens Against Euro, Official Reserves Rise

During this period, no auction operation was carried out on the foreign exchange market, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) indicates, while specifying that as of February 3, 2023, the outstanding official reserve assets stood at 336.2 billion dirhams (MMDH), up 0.5% from the previous week and 2.1% year-on-year, the same source said.

BAM reports that it injected an amount of 89.9 MMDH, including 43.2 MMDH in the form of 7-day advances on call for tenders and 23.5 MMDH in outstanding long-term repurchase agreements, 23.2 MMDH in long-term guaranteed loans and 3.9 MMDH in the form of 24-hour advances, during the same period.

A call for tenders relating to structural operations to purchase Treasury bills on the secondary market was organized on February 6, 2023 by the central bank. The operation recorded a total demand of nearly 200 million dirhams (MDH), fully satisfied by BAM, and concerned Treasury bills with an average maturity of nearly 3 months at an average rate of 3.12%.

On the interbank market, the average daily trading volume stood at 4.9 MMDH. As for the interbank rate, it stood at an average of 2.5%. During the call for tenders on February 8 (value date February 9), the bank injected an amount of 34 MMDH in the form of 7-day advances.

On the stock market, the MASI appreciated by 4.3%, thus reducing its underperformance since the beginning of the year to 0.7%. This development is explained by the increases in the indices of the banking sector by 6.3%, the agri-food sector by 4.2% and the building and construction materials sector by 3%. Conversely, those of "oil and gas" and beverages fell by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.

As for the overall trading volume, it amounted to 9.4 MMDH, including 8.7 MMDH in the form of securities contributions against 562 MDH the previous week. Regarding the average daily volume on the central equity market, it stood at 106.3 MDH after 71.3 MDH the previous week.