Foreign transactions in stocks jump 38% in Jan-Aug

Foreign participation in Bangladesh’s capital market is rising amid regulatory reforms and efforts to simplify the investment process, with transactions by foreign investors jumping 37.7% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2026.
Foreign investors recorded transactions worth Tk3,701.29 crore during January-August this year, up from Tk2,687.39 crore in the same period of 2025, according to the latest data from the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
The eight-month figure is already equivalent to about 94% of the Tk3,920.42 crore in foreign transactions recorded during the whole of 2025, with four months of the year still remaining.
Market insiders attributed the increase partly to a series of reform initiatives aimed at making the capital market more accessible to overseas investors. 
These include efforts to position Bangladesh for an upgrade from frontier to emerging market status, engagement with international index providers, simplified procedures for foreign investors and moves to shorten the settlement cycle.
Changes to the management of Non-Resident Investors’ Taka Accounts (NITA), a key mechanism through which foreign investors channel funds into Bangladesh’s capital market, are also expected to ease investment procedures.
Previously, managing NITA accounts involved procedural complexities, as funds had to be accounted for separately for individual transactions.
Market insiders said the revised arrangement allows the necessary accounting to be completed when funds are repatriated from Bangladesh, rather than requiring separate calculations for each transaction. 
The change is expected to simplify both investment and fund repatriation for foreign investors.
DSE data show that foreign transactions fluctuated considerably during the first eight months of 2026 despite remaining substantially higher overall than in the corresponding period last year.
Foreign transactions stood at Tk377.24 crore in January before rising to Tk663.28 crore in February. They then fell to Tk272.04 crore in March and Tk175.16 crore in April.
Transactions surged to Tk831.70 crore in May, the highest monthly figure during the first eight months of the year. 
They subsequently eased to Tk540.17 crore in June and Tk523.15 crore in July before falling to Tk 318.57 crore in August.
During the same eight-month period of 2025, foreign transactions totalled Tk2,687.39 crore. Monthly transactions stood at Tk181.81 crore in January, Tk264.14 crore in February and Tk171.96 crore in March.
They rose to Tk426.94 crore in April and Tk506.74 crore in May, the highest monthly figure during the period. 
Transactions then declined to Tk285.31 crore in June, rebounded to Tk491.44 crore in July and stood at Tk371.56 crore in August.
Overall, foreign investors recorded transactions worth Tk3,920.42 crore in 2025. The Tk3,701.29 crore recorded in the first eight months of 2026 leaves this year’s total just Tk219.13 crore short of the entire 2025 figure.