The regional bourse for French West Africa (BVRM ) in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, closed trading Thursday slightly lower than Wednesday. The BRVM Composite index lost 0.02%, dropping from 224.75 to 224.71 points as the BRVM 10 index closed at 248.08 points down 0.05%. The bourse said in a statement that the value of the transactions was 697.69 million CFA francs, compared to the 1.69 billion CFA francs reported Wednesday. Trading involved 17 of the 38 companies listed on the stock exchange and the number of securities traded climbed to 267,282. It said that 14 of the 20 accredited brokerage firms, including eight from outside Côte d’Ivoire, took part in the trading. Stock market capitalization was 4,206,119,894,535 CFA francs. That for the bond market rose to 512,070,670,000 CFA francs. On the bond market, 53,750 bonds were traded for a total value of 370.85 million CFA francs, not counting accrued coupons.
