Stock Market Reactions to Health Policy Announcements: An Event Study on Listed Healthcare Stocks on the Casablanca Stock Exchange (Revue Internationale des Sciences de Gestion)

Summary

• Over a two-session window, Akdital gains 5.0% after the health budget increase announcement and loses 5.4% at the start of the GenZ 212 movement.p.2
• According to the Court of Audit, 31.94 million people were registered at end 2024, but only 25.6 million actually benefited from coverage, and the private sector captured about 91% of billed expenses.p.3
• Vicenne joined the Casablanca Stock Exchange on 15 July 2025 after an offer that drew more than 37,000 subscribers.p.3
• The sample covers 737 sessions, from 4 October 2023 to 2 October 2026.p.8
• Empirical probabilities are computed on 503 placebo sessions without announcements.p.12
• After the decrees on territorial health groupings, Akdital falls 9.58% over six sessions.p.13

Key insights

1. Institutional announcements have no significant average effect on listed healthcare stocks.p.2
2. After the 2026 budget announcement, the MASI also rose 4.7% over the two days and the raw stock gain reached 9.3%.p.13
3. The 4.25% drop linked to the royal speech occurred the next day, with a 5.6% fall after reports of a clinic closure, so the event is excluded from interpretation.p.14
4. With empirical probabilities, GenZ 212 and the 2026 budget remain significant at the 5% level on the main window (0.026 and 0.028).p.17
5. After the Holm multiple-testing correction, the empirical probabilities rise to 0.206.p.18
6. Results rest on a single liquid company and cannot be transposed to unlisted clinics or the pharmaceutical industry.p.21
7. The competitor-state proposition was formulated after the first results, which exposes the study to over-interpretation.p.21