Foreign participation in Bangladesh’s stock market is growing on the back of reforms and an easier investment process. Foreign investors’ total turnover in the first eight months of this year was 37.6 percent higher than in the same period last year, and has already reached about 94 percent of last year’s full-year total.
According to the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), foreign investors traded Tk 3,701.29 crore of shares in January to August 2026, against Tk 2,687.39 crore a year earlier, an increase of Tk 1,013.90 crore.
Market participants credit reforms including preparations to upgrade the market from frontier to emerging status, engagement with international index providers, a simpler process for foreign investment and moves to shorten settlement times.
DSE managing director Nuzhat Anwar said no single DSE initiative was behind the rise; together, the emerging-market preparations, contacts with MSCI and others, Bangladesh Bank’s easing of rules on Non-Resident Investors’ Taka Accounts (NITA) and the move towards T+1 settlement have sent a positive message. Previously foreign investors had to account through their NITA account for every transaction; after the DSE raised the issue, Bangladesh Bank changed the rule so the accounting can be done when money is repatriated, she said.
Foreign turnover has fluctuated this year but trended upwards: Tk 377 crore in January, Tk 663 crore in February, Tk 272 crore in March and Tk 175 crore in April, then a peak of Tk 832 crore in May, followed by Tk 540 crore in June, Tk 523 crore in July and Tk 319 crore in August.
Foreign investors’ total turnover for the whole of 2025 was Tk 3,920.42 crore.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report