February 12, 2014. According to experts' estimates, the Olympics-hosting countries usually experience a stock market increase, while their national currency grows stronger thanks to a greater foreign investment inflow, Bank Koltso Urala reports.

Head of the bank's Planning & Analytics Department Igor Zadorin says that the foreign media are currently taking a greater interest in the Olympics and in Russia on the whole. These current conditions are quite conducive to business negotiations and attracting new investments into the country. For one, there still remains a question of how the Olympics infrastructure is going to be used so as to get the maximum pay-off for the Russian economy.

'According to experts' estimates, the Olympics-hosting countries usually experience a stock market increase, while their national currency grows stronger thanks to a greater foreign investment inflow. However, the negative trends make this a less likely scenario for Russia. A number of external factors (the US Federal Reserve System's policy towards smaller bond redemption volume and withdrawing capital from the developing markets) are going to have a negative impact on the ruble,' says the bank's Currency & Finance Transactions Director Igor Nesterovitch.

Experts predict the ruble/dollar and the ruble/euro exchange rate will come to about 36-36.5/1 and 48.5-49/1, respectively, by the end of the year.