200 billion dirhams. This is the overall amount of foreign investment in listed shares in 2019, according to the report on foreign investment in financial instruments from the Moroccan Capital Market Authority (AMMC). This amount is up 5.6% compared to the level observed in 2018. The share of capitalization held by foreign investors, meanwhile, remained almost stable compared to the previous year (32%).
The increase in foreign investment in amounts invested is mainly linked to the appreciation of the prices of listed shares making up the portfolios of foreign investors, the MASI index having increased by 7.11% in 2019, specifies, moreover, the AMMC. “Foreign investment in listed shares mainly consists of strategic holdings which represented 91.5% of the total amount in 2019. In addition, the floating share of foreign capital invested on the Casablanca stock exchange stood at 2.7 % of total market capitalization and 11.3% of floating capitalization, “said the financial institution in its report.
For its part, the outstanding debt securities held by foreigners amounted to nearly 2.42 billion dirhams, 84% of which goes to non-resident foreign legal entities. In addition, and although remaining at relatively low levels, foreign investment in UCITS securities rose, with 2.9 billion dirhams at the end of 2019, against 1.8 billion a year earlier.
Finally, with regard to the contribution of foreign investors to the transaction volume, this increased, since foreigners were, in 2019, responsible for 19% of the overall transaction volume (central market and block market), compared to 9.12% in 2018. In terms of geographic origin, European investors are the most active, with 69% of the volume made by foreign investors, followed by North American investors, at 12%.
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