There’s no end in sight to the downward spiral of the The Afrika Market Index. As global markets experienced their worst week of the year, the Index moved below the 100-point mark. Dropping 3.76 points, the Ai40 Index fell 3.7% from last week’s value of 100.58 points to close out the session on 96.82 points. North Africa fared the worst, taking all five worst performing positions.
Concerns over China’s economy did major damage to global markets last week. In the US, stock markets dropped dramatically on Friday after three consecutive days of loss. All three major indices were down more than 3% with the S&P 500 reportedly losing about US $1.14 trillion over the week, while the Dow is now officially in correction territory.
At Friday’s close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.12%, or 530.94 points, to close the week at a value of 16,459.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3.52%, or 171.45 points, to end the week on a value of 4,706.04, while the S&P 500 tumbled by 64.84 points, or 3.19%, to close at 1,970.89.
Gainers
It was at least a week of good news for AngloGold Ashanti. The South African-listed mining house gained a whopping 31.6% to take this week’s star performance. The company’s share price soared as the price of gold climbed close to $1,150 per ounce. Anglo Platinum also scored a positive week, rising 17.0%, despite platinum prices hitting new lows last week.
Lagging far behind, the other three top positions were taken by North African stocks, which also took all five of the worst performing positions this session. Moroccan real estate firm Douja Prom Addoha gained just 1.0% while Tunisian bank Banque de Tunisie and Moroccan bank Banque Marocaine du Commerce gained 0.9% and 0.3% respectively.
Losers
Egypt dominated the loser’s list this week, taking four of the five bottom spots. Orascom Construction was the week’s biggest loser, dropping 23.7%. Real estate firm TMG Holding lost 13.7% while telecommunications firm Telecom Egypt was down 13.6%. Commercial International Bank was the best of the worst with a decline of 11.4%. Thursday saw the EGX at its lowest level since January 2014 and Sunday saw Egyptian stocks suffer their worst one-day drop since December 2013.
The lone Moroccan stock among the worst five was real estate firm CGI, which lost an unhealthy 18.8% over the session.
