- eToro looked at 12-month performance of stock markets for 31 of the Eurovision contenders
- Cyprus comes top thanks to Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic Bank rallying 130% in a year
- Serbia and Ireland – both past winners in the Song Contest – also finish on Stock Contest podium
While millions around the world will be glued to their TV sets this week as the Eurovision Song Contest heats up, retail investors may want to take heed of a very different competition.
Celebrating its first ever year, the Eurovision Stock Contest, from trading and investing platform eToro, ranks the performance of the leading stock exchanges from each of the Eurovision contenders*, looking at collective gains and losses over a 12-month period.
Taking the crown in 2023 is Cyprus (see table 1), with its seven-stock Main Market Index up 54% over the last year. Cyprus is yet to win the better known Eurovision Song Contest in more than 40 attempts, but it claimed the first Stock Contest title thanks to its heavy concentration of banks, with the Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic Bank rallying around 130% during the time period.
The island has a population of just 1.2 million and its stock exchange is a market capitalisation minnow of EUR 2.2 billion, at only 0.02% the size of Europe’s EUR 10 trillion Stoxx 600 index, or 0.01% of the US S&P 500’s market capitalisation.
In second place, Serbia’s Belgrade exchange is up 40% in the last year thanks to the strong performance of its oil refiners and aluminium stocks, which are up circa 50%. The country will be hoping for similar success in its Eurovision Song Contest bid this year as contender Luke Black sings ‘samo mi se spava’ (‘I just want to sleep’).
The final place on the podium goes to serial Eurovision Song Contest winner Ireland, with its local stock index up 18% over 12 months, in part thanks to the very strong share price performance of gambling firm Flutter and bank AIB. Other strong performers in this year’s Eurovision Stock Contest were Greece (+17%), France (+16%) and Germany (+15%).
Commenting on the data, Ben Laidler, Global Markets Strategist at eToro, said: “While Cyprus hasn’t been blessed in the Eurovision Song Contest – holding the record for the most entries into the competition without a win – the country was the clear winner in our inaugural Eurovision Stock Contest. Cyprus finished head and shoulders above other contenders, thanks to its small stock exchange being dominated by banks which have enjoyed huge share price gains over the last year.
“Several of the heavyweight stock exchanges have also offered great returns over the last year and consequently ranked highly in our competition, with Germany’s DAX earning the country sixth spot and France’s CAC 40 taking fifth place.
“What the data shows is that it pays to look outside your own market when you’re investing and make sure you are well diversified across different stock exchanges, many of which have very different strengths. Over the last year, for example, a healthy exposure to large European stock markets will have cushioned the blow for those with strong exposure to the S&P 500, which fell 1%.”
Table 1: Countries in the 2023 Eurovision Stock Contest ranked in descending order
| Rank | Country | Stock exchange Code | Performance over 12 months | Finishing position in 2022 Eurovision Song Contest |
| 1 | Cyprus | CYMAP | 54% | 29th |
| 2 | Serbia | MSSERBL | 40% | 5th |
| 3 | Ireland | ISEQUIT | 18% | 34th |
| 4 | Greece | GRAGENL | 17% | 8th |
| 5 | France | FRCAC40 | 16% | 24th |
| 6 | Germany | DAXINDX | 15% | 25th |
| 7 | Italy | FTSE MIB | 15% | 6th |
| 8 | Latvia | RIGSEIN | 12% | 32nd |
| 9 | Lithuania | LNVILSE | 11% | 14th |
| 10 | Sweden | SWEDOMX | 11% | 4th |
| 11 | Denmark | COSEASH | 10% | 31st |
| 12 | Spain | IBEX35I | 10% | 3rd |
| 13 | UK | FTSE100 | 6% | 2nd |
| 14 | Netherlands | NLALSHR | 6% | 11th |
| 15 | Croatia | CTCROBE | 6% | 26th |
| 16 | Slovenia | SLOETOP | 6% | 40th |
| 17 | Portugal | POPSIGN | 5% | 9th |
| 18 | Poland | POLWIGI | 3% | 12th |
| 19 | Czech Republic | CZPXIDX | 3% | 22nd |
| 20 | Austria | ATXINDX | 1% | 36th |
| 21 | Malta | MALTAIX | 1% | 35th |
| 22 | Estonia | ESTALSE | 0% | 13th |
| 23 | Australia | ASX200I | 0% | 15th |
| 24 | Norway | OSLOASH | -1% | 10th |
| 25 | Romania | RMBETRL | -2% | 18th |
| 26 | Finland | HEXINDX | -3% | 21st |
| 27 | Switzerland | SWISSMI | -5% | 17th |
| 28 | Belgium | BGBEL20 | -8% | 19th |
| 29 | Iceland | ICEXALL | -14% | 23rd |
| 30 | Israel | ISEQUIT | -18% | 30th |
| 31 | Ukraine | MSUKRN$ | -31% | 1st |
ENDS
*Of the 37 contenders in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, 31 have stock exchanges that were large enough to be considered as part of this research. San Marino has no domestic stock exchange, while the stock exchanges of Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova were considered too small.
Notes to editors
Data on each stock exchange is of April 26th, 2023
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