Abidjan, May 05 (AIP)- Stock exchanges around the world have had mixed fortunes in this period of
Covid 19 during the period from April 27 to May 1, according to the weekly market note consulted by the AIP.
In the United States, the impact on the job market continues to be confirmed. In the month of April, the number of
unemployment benefit claims rose to 30 million, in line with the fall in Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of around 3.8% in the 1st quarter.
On the side of the Canadian neighbour, which is suffering the double effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the fall in the prices of the
oil, the situation is just as worrying. According to estimates from an official study, the economy
could contract by 12% over the year 2020, which would constitute a poor performance
historical.
In Europe, the European statistics office, Eurostat, estimates the decline in GDP in the Euro Zone at 3.8% over the
1st trimester. This would be the largest quarterly drop in GDP since the zone was created in
1999. In this context, the announcements of support measures follow one another at a frantic pace with always
central banks on the move.
Thus, the Bank of Japan (BOJ), which anticipates an entry into recession accompanied by deflation, has
decided to lift the limits on its purchases of government bonds and to raise its ceiling on
buybacks of corporate bonds.
The European Central Bank (ECB), for its part, maintained its key rate at a level close to
zero, while easing its financing operations to commercial banks.
This latest measure complements the decision of the European Union to relax the prudential rules
imposed on banks, allowing them to free up capital without having to proportionally increase the
provisions for bad debts.
The aim is to stimulate the granting of credit by the banks.
On the financial markets, macroeconomic announcements as well as bad publications
corporate financials, did not hamper the rebound on most stock markets.
Investors thus preferred to concentrate on the announcement of positive results on the trials of a
treatment for COVID-19, which reinforces the prospect of an exit from the crisis soon.
However, US markets took a nose dive at the very end of the week.
Indeed, open on May 1, the American stock exchanges fell heavily during the session, making
following US President Donald Trump's threats of trade sanctions against the
China due to its handling of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Most of the news in the Uemoa region can be summed up in the continuation of the issuance of "social vouchers
COVID-19”, by Member States.
Thus, Senegal and Burkina Faso raised respectively 103 and 80 billion FCFA, following in the footsteps of
Côte d'Ivoire which had collected 180 billion FCFA at the beginning of the week.
On the regional financial market, stock market indices moved against the global trend, with
declines of 1.45% for the BRVM 10 index and 1% for the BRVM composite index.
This contraction is undoubtedly due to profit-taking by investors, following the strong
increase noted during the previous week.

The top 5 biggest declines of the week on the equity market illustrate the difficulties encountered by
certain banking stocks, in a context of a pandemic not conducive to the development of the activity of
credit.
Thus, we find the shares BICI CI (-7.96%), BOA Mali (-9.17%) and Boa bf (-9.19%) in this ranking.
The Filtisac stock (-11.11%) recorded the second biggest drop of the period. The company has published its
annual financial statements for 2019 as well as its activity report for the 1st quarter of 2020. Regarding this
last publication, the management of the company wished to reassure investors as to the limited impact
of the health crisis on its activity.
The title Sucrivoire has awarded the largest drop of the week, with a heavy fall of 20.71
%. The value suffered, following the publication of its annual financial results, revealing a net loss of
5.3 billion FCFA for the 2019 financial year.