Moroccan Dirham Strengthens Against Euro, Weakens vs Dollar as Reserves Hold Steady

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 28, 2023, the outstanding official reserve assets stood at 332.7 billion dirhams (MMDH), almost stagnant from one week to the next and slightly down 0.2% year-on-year.

BAM reports that an amount of 85.8 MMDH was injected, including 39.9 MMDH in the form of 7-day advances on call for tenders and 23.4 MMDH in outstanding long-term repurchase agreements, 22.4 MMDH in long-term guaranteed loans and 100 million dirhams (MDH) in the form of foreign exchange swaps, during the same period.

On the interbank market, the average daily trading volume stood at 3.1 MMDH. As for the interbank rate, it stood at an average of 2.50%. At the call for tenders on March 8 (value date March 9), the Bank injected an amount of 14.2 MMDH in the form of 7-day advances.

On the stock market, the MASI depreciated by 2.3%, bringing its underperformance since the beginning of the year to 1.2%. This development is explained by the declines in the indices of the electricity sector by 4.9%, the building and construction materials sector by 3.1% and the banking sector by 2.9%. Conversely, those of the pharmaceutical industry and insurance increased by 1.6% and 0.1% respectively.

As for the overall trading volume, it amounted to 437.1 MDH against 361.6 MDH the previous week. As for the average daily volume on the central equity market, it stood at 54.7 MDH after 72.2 MDH the previous week.