Although the number of local investors in the country’s stock market has increased, the number of foreign and expatriate investors has been decreasing continuously.

The trend of foreigners leaving the capital market for the past few months has not stopped yet. During the tenure of the interim government that took over the responsibility of running the country after the fall of the Hasina government, the number of beneficial owners (BO) accounts of foreign and expatriate investors has decreased by 337 in four months. This procession of foreigners and expatriates leaving the stock market has been going on since November last year.

Although the number of foreign and expatriate investors in the country’s stock market has decreased, the number of local and domestic investors has also increased after the fall of the Hasina government. The BO account of local investors has increased by about 12,500 in the last four months. However, there are about 1 lakh fewer BO accounts in the stock market compared to the beginning of this year.

BO is an account opened by an investor in a brokerage house or merchant bank for investing in the stock market. Investors trade in the stock market through this BO account. It is not possible to trade in the stock market without a BO account. The Central Depository Bangladesh Limited (CDBL) is responsible for maintaining BO account information.

According to the data of this CDBL, as of December 15, the number of BO accounts of investors in the stock market stood at 16,81,346. This was 16,68,058 when the Hasina government fell. Accordingly, after the fall of the Hasina government, the number of BO accounts in the stock market increased by 13,288. Of this, after the interim government took office, the number of BO accounts increased by 12,451. On the day the interim government took office, the number of BO accounts was 16,68,895.

However, although the number of investors in the stock market has increased overall, the number of foreign and expatriate investors is decreasing. According to the data of CDBL, currently there are 46,744 BO accounts of foreign and expatriate investors. This number was 47,084 when the Hasina government fell. And it was 47,081 on the day the interim government took office. This means that the number of BO accounts of foreign and expatriate investors has been continuously decreasing. Of these, 337 have decreased during the term of the interim government.