Last year, the WAEMU regional money market recorded an average transaction value of CAF980.24 million ($1.8 million) per day. The figures were featured in the balance sheet and outlook presented on January 20 by Edoh Kossi Amenounve, the director of this institution.

This performance reflects the increase in the value of transactions which reached CFA246 billion over the period reviewed, against CFA136 billion in 2010. This is the best performance of stock market transactions since 2018. It is also one of the positive points of a stock market that has evolved in an international context marked by the covid-19.

Another positive aspect of BRVM in 2020 is the dynamism of its bond segment, where the capitalization reached CFA6051.4 billion, up 43% compared to that of 2019. In this context, and despite a 7.4% decline in the capitalization of shares, the overall value of securities registered on the BRVM reached CFA10,961 billion, the highest annual level since 2016.

Similarly, the liquidity ratio, which measures the volume of transactions in the number of marketable securities (free float), rose slightly to 3.6%. Finally, there was a 38.4% increase in securities, such as dividend payments, bond redemptions, and others, to the benefit of investors. They reached a value of CFA1055.3 billion, the highest level since 2016.

In detail, CFA300.5 billion was paid in interest to those who invested in the bonds issued, and listed companies paid CFA97 billion in dividends. These figures were presented as additional information to the analysis of the performance of the regional stock exchange.

"Our share on stock markets is not short-term. We are working for the next 30 or even 50 years. We are indeed sensitive to changes in indexes, but that's not the core business of the stock markets. We operate to transform economies and work for sustainable development. We monitor indices and market behavior, and we are working to ensure that these are not factors that discourage investors,” the BRVM MD said.

On this level indeed, the BRVM has not experienced a positive evolution. Its main indexes, BRVM 10 and BRVM Composite ended 2020 with losses in value, of 12.2% and 8.7% respectively. However, it is the equity sub-fund with the largest number of individual investors.