Casablanca stock exchange on the red over Covid-19 fears

The main index at Casablanca’s stock exchange suffered on February 9 the steepest single-day plunge in its history amid a similar trend in international bourses due to Coronavirus fears.

Investors rushed to sell shares causing a 5.82% drop in Masi, Casablanca’s main index, which lost 11.2% of its value since the beginning of 2020.

The same day, total transactions at the stock exchange were limited at 584 million dirhams as Coronavirus continues to amplify fears of a global economic slowdown.

Besides coronavirus consequences on global supply and demand, Global markets sank after the implosion of an alliance between OPEC and Russia caused the worst one-day crash in crude prices in nearly 30 years, fueling panic triggered by the escalation of the coronavirus epidemic.

The S&P 500 fell about 6%. The Dow fell as many as 2,046 points. The Nasdaq Composite was down 5.4%. The New York Stock Exchange halted trading for 15 minutes after stocks plunged more than 7%. They retraced some of their losses after the market reopened.

About $9 trillion was wiped off global stocks in nine days, Bank of America said in a research note after US markets closed deep in the red again on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has waged an oil price war against Russia pushing down prices as much as 30 per cent.