Foreign transactions in capital market rise 37.6pc in 8 months

Foreign investors’ participation in Bangladesh’s capital market is increasing amid reform initiatives and efforts to simplify investment procedures, with their total transactions rising 37.6 percent in the first eight months of this year compared to the same period last year.

The total value of foreign investors’ transactions from January to August this year reached Tk 3,701.29 crore, compared to Tk 2,687.39 crore during the corresponding period in 2025, according to data from the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

The transactions increased by around Tk 1,013.90 crore year-on-year. Moreover, the volume of foreign transactions during the first eight months of 2026 reached nearly 94 percent of the total transactions recorded throughout 2025.

Market insiders attribute the rise in foreign participation to a range of reform initiatives, including preparations to upgrade Bangladesh’s capital market from frontier market status to emerging market status, engagement with international index providers, simplification of procedures for foreign investors and efforts to shorten the settlement cycle.

DSE Managing Director Nuzhat Anwar told BSS on Saturday that the increase in foreign transactions was not attributable to any single initiative by the DSE.

“Preparations to upgrade the market from frontier to emerging market status, engagement with organisations such as MSCI, simplification of Bangladesh Bank’s rules relating to Non-resident Investors’ Taka Accounts (NITAs), and the initiative to introduce a T+1 settlement system have collectively sent positive signals to foreign investors,” she said.

She said a procedural complication concerning NITAs, which are used by foreign portfolio investors to invest in Bangladesh, had recently been eased by Bangladesh Bank.�"BSS