A wind of optimism on the Equity Market

Executive Summary

Listed companies’ operational achievements in the Q3-20 takes place within a context marked by the gradual recovery of economy, after a challenging period of strict population lockdown for more than 90 days.

At the end of November 2020, 68 listed companies out of a total of 72 published their results for Q3-20, representing a significant weight of 99% in the market capitalization.

Upon our analysis of quarterly press releases from listed companies and taking into account the evolution Equity market at the end of November 2020, we come out with 5 key messages :

• Listed companies’ achievements in the 3rd quarter of 2020 are globally reassuring. In fact, after a -10.5% drop in activity in Q2-20, listed companies revenues recorded a deceleration in their decline to -4.5% in Q3-20 ;
• The return to growth in the Building Materials sector in Q3-20, whose turnover increased by +2.1%, is a positive surprise for the market. In fact, investors expected a relatively slow recovery for this sector ;
• At the end of the first 9 months of 2020, the Banking, Telecom, NIT and Mining sectors show an interesting resilience of their activities through positive variations ranging from 1.0 to 5.0% ;
• The solid recovery of the MASI index after the Covid-19 shock stems from 3 factors which positively impact investors' perception toward Equity. These are : the historically low levels of bond rates, the launch of the vaccination campaign in Morocco and abroad in December and finally, (3) the return to the dividends’ distribution from the banking sector ;
• The increase in Morocco's weighting in the MSCI FM from 8.5% to 13.4% did not translate into a significant buying flow towards the Moroccan market. The flow generated did not exceed $ 15 Mn, of which 74% has been captured by Maroc Telecom and Attijariwafa bank. We are convinced that Morocco's return to the prestigious club of emerging markets is an essential condition for a sustainable dynamic of foreign flows.

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