World Cup leaves traders on the bench

Singapore

IF you have been trading the market this World Cup, you might be somewhat lonely.

Trading volumes for the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) have fallen by a record proportion not seen since 2002, an analysis by The Business Times for the past five World Cups shows.

"Football fever has definitely caught on a little more in Singapore," Kevin Foy, director of equity sales trading at brokerage Maybank Kim Eng, told BT.

Average STI volumes from the beginning of the World Cup on June 12 through June 24 amounted to just 140 million shares daily - 36 per cent below the 219 million average for the year so far.

The 2010 World Cup held in South Africa saw only a 15 per cent d…