World Cup to cause slump in market trading as matches take precedence

If you're planning to trade Chilean stocks during the World Cup, forget it.

Though the team has a 1-in-50 chance of winning the month-long tournament, investors on the Santiago exchange are best in the world at ducking away to watch the games.

Transactions fell more than 99 per cent when the national team was playing in 2010, according to a European Central Bank study.

It was the biggest drop among 15 countries surveyed, which included nine in Europe, four in Latin America, the United States and host South Africa. The median decline was 55 per cent.

"The last time Chile played, the market was dead," said Arturo Curtze, an equity analyst at broker and asset manager Vantrust Capital in Santiago. "Everyone was watching. Managers allow their workers to bring TVs. In schools and universities everyone has televisions and all the trading desks have them. Chileans always get overexcited about our team."

Traders from Argentina to Japan are readying themselves for a drop in business. Transactions even in developed countries such as the US thinned out during the 2010 games in South Africa as buyers and sellers put watching soccer before global politics and economic reports, according to the ECB's 2012 study.