MOROCCO
The Casablanca Stock Exchange was almost unchanged
in thin trading marked by narrow movements
in blue-chip stocks. The market continues to lack direction
in the absence of concrete steps to attract dwindling
local and foreign institutional investors. News of
the expected listing of Managem, the mining arm of
conglomerate ONA Group, sparked some enthusiasm
and is expected to ignite interest on the dormant bourse.
Also, healthy corporate earnings for Maroc Telecom,
which is expected to be privatized this year, drew investors’
attention. The telecom company reported a
55% increase in 1999 net profit to $190 million.
EGYPT
Egyptian equities continued to linger in negative territory,
affected not only by the bearish performance of the
global markets, but also by the continuing liquidity
shortage in the local marketplace. The bourse dropped to
a new year-low as institutional investors remained on the
sidelines. Amid a lack of positive news, retail investors
initiated a selling spree across the board that led to
heavy losses in major blue-chip stocks, notably Media
Production and MobiNil. The selling pressures were the
result of investors’ attempts to liquidate part of their
holdings ahead of an expected IPO in Orascom Telecom.
JORDAN
Despite a general mood of optimism following the Israeli
withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Jordanian equities
succumbed to a fall in heavyweight Arab Bank, which
faltered under strong foreign selling pressures. Investors
remain wary of the banking sector in Jordan in light of
Jordan National Bank’s record loss of around $24 million
as a result of hefty provisioning. The economic slowdown
in Jordan has taken its toll on Jordanian banks’ asset
quality, and the aggregate level of non-performing
loans in the Jordanian banking sector has significantly increased
in 1999 and is not likely to improve in 2000.
