ABIDJAN, Jan 20 (Reuters) – The value of West Africa’s regional BRVM bourse rose around 15% in 2020 to 10.4 trillion CFA francs ($19.32 billion), driven by a record performance from its bonds listings, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

The Abidjan-based exchange trades shares of 46 companies, including Senegalese telecoms company Sonatel, Burkina Faso’s main telecoms operator Onatel and lender Societe Generale Cote d’Ivoire. The bonds of several companies and countries are also listed on the exchange.

Its bonds market saw a record 2.377 trillion CFA francs raised in 2020, nearly double the amount in 2019 as countries and companies issued debt to offset the impact of the pandemic, BRVM Chief Executive Edoh Kossi Amenounve told reporters.

“Investors were quite active on our market despite the COVID-19 crisis,” he said.

Last March, the value of the bourse’s bonds exceeded that of its equities for the first time after investors sought refuge in the debt market as the novel coronavirus swept the world. ($1 = 538.4400 CFA francs) (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Barbara Lewis)

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