Major Sporting Events Can Give Temporary Bump To Host's Stock Markets

Sporting events like Euro 2012 “are known for pushing the stock markets of host countries but last only for a short period of time,” according to Richard Haimann of the FINANCIAL TIMES DEUTSCHLAND. Saxo Bank investment analyst Matt Bolduc said: “Over the last 20 years stock market indexes in the host countries of Summer Olympics did notably better than the global stock market index MSCI.” Haimann wrote, “the Dow Jones had an 18% advantage over the MSCI index after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.” The same happened in Australia after the 2000 Sydney Games were the ASX index had an 24% advantage and in Greece after the 2004 Athens Olympics were the Athex index was 23% better than the MSCI.” The same holds true for World Cup hosts. The German DAX index "increased by 45%" after the 2006 World Cup. However, those gains "have only a limited duration." Just one year after hosting a big sporting event “most indexes decrease and go along with the worldwide flow” (FINANCIAL TIMES DEUTSCHLAND, 6/11).