Foreign Trading on the Dhaka Bourse Falls Sharply in Early October, Down About 38 Percent
Foreign investors' trading on Bangladesh's stock market has fallen sharply again. In the first half of October, foreign investors traded shares worth Tk 214 crore on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the country's main bourse, down from Tk 346 crore in the second half of September — a drop of about 38 percent in just one fortnight.
According to the DSE's fortnightly report, foreign trading on the country's stock market has yet to regain the desired stability, and their activity has swung sharply up and down over the past year.
Statistics show that in the 13 months from July 2025 to July this year, foreign investors traded shares worth a total of Tk 4,707 crore. The long-run figures make clear that while foreigners remain present in the market, their activity has never stayed on a sustained upward path.
Month-by-month data show foreign trading stood at Tk 377 crore in January 2026, rising to a peak of Tk 663 crore in February. It then fell to Tk 272 crore in March and Tk 175 crore in April.
In May, foreign trading collapsed to just Tk 74 crore — the lowest of the current year. It later recovered somewhat to Tk 540 crore in June, Tk 523 crore in July, Tk 319 crore in August and Tk 581 crore in September.
The previous year saw similar steep falls: from July to December 2025, foreign trading dropped to Tk 146 crore in December. In total, foreign investors traded Tk 4,185 crore in fiscal 2025-26, slightly more than the Tk 3,931 crore of fiscal 2024-25.
The long-term strain is visible not only in monthly trading but also in the net position of foreign portfolio investment in the country's stock and bond markets. Since fiscal 2020-21, net flows into domestic debt securities and the share market have been negative; that year the net portfolio outflow was Tk 2,880 crore.
The outflow then stood at Tk 3,060 crore in 2021-22, Tk 2,640 crore in 2022-23 and a peak of Tk 3,820 crore in 2023-24. Although it eased to Tk 1,680 crore in 2024-25, it rose again to Tk 2,721 crore in the just-ended 2025-26 fiscal year, leaving the net foreign investment picture still tilted toward outflows.
Long-term data also show that foreign investors' share of overall DSE turnover has shrunk markedly. In 2016 foreigners accounted for 3.68 percent of total DSE trading, and in 2017 the value rose to a record Tk 11,448 crore.
But the Covid pandemic of 2020 dealt that participation a heavy blow. The foreign share fell to 1.10 percent in 2021, and sank further to 0.89 percent in 2022 and 0.77 percent in 2023, before edging up to 1.22 percent, or Tk 3,929 crore, in 2024.
Market insiders say the overall environment of the capital market, the negative trend in share prices, the dollar crisis and uncertainty in the foreign exchange market, and complications in repatriating profits are why foreign investors have not yet returned in normal numbers.
The first-half October fall is a continuation of that long-term picture. The question now is whether foreign trading rebounds in the second half of the month, and whether policymakers take any new steps to restore their confidence in the market.
