When people talk about "the Moroccan stock market", they almost always mean the MASI. This single number summarises the apparent health of every listed share on the Casablanca Stock Exchange. Knowing how it is built changes how you read the numbers at the open and the close.
What the MASI actually measures
The Moroccan All Shares Index aggregates almost every company listed in Casablanca. Each constituent enters the calculation in proportion to its free-float market capitalisation — the value of the shares actually available for trading, excluding the blocks held by the state or by a reference shareholder. This avoids the distortion of a company with 95 % of its capital locked weighing as if all of it were in circulation.
The index is rebased periodically and is quoted in points. Its absolute level has no meaning; what matters is the variation between two dates.
Who carries the most weight
A handful of heavy hitters dominate the composition. The big banks (Attijariwafa Bank, BCP, BMCE), Maroc Telecom, and a few cement and insurance names represent a large share of the total free-float cap. A 2 % move on Attijariwafa Bank moves the index far more than a 2 % move on a mid-cap.
That is why the MASI can be up while most names are down: a single heavy hitter having a good session is enough.
How to use it day-to-day
The MASI is a useful overall barometer, not a performance gauge for any specific portfolio. If you hold mostly mid-caps, your performance can diverge strongly from the MASI over short windows. A blue-chip-only portfolio, on the other hand, tends to track it tightly.
When you read "the MASI closed up 0.7 %", three follow-up questions help:
- What was the contribution of the banks and Maroc Telecom today?
- How many constituents were up versus down (the breadth)?
- What volume traded on the session (low volume tempers any conclusion)?
Variants
The MASI 20 captures the twenty most liquid names. The MADEX filters for liquidity above a minimum threshold. For a retail investor, the headline MASI is the default reference; the variants matter mostly to institutional managers calibrating against a target exposure.
In practice
Checking the MASI once a day, alongside breadth and volume, is enough for the vast majority of long-term investment decisions. Watching it minute by minute adds nothing unless you are day-trading — which is neither Nommo's audience nor its mission.