Net foreign investment in the capital market jumped more than nine times year-on-year in the first ten months of the year as overseas investors were anticipating a positive market scenario.

Foreign investors bought shares worth Tk 3,967.02 crore and sold shares worth Tk 3,166.55 crore to take their net investment for the January-October period to Tk 800.47 crore.

A year earlier, the net investment by foreigners stood at Tk 83.71 crore, according to Dhaka Stock Exchange data.

Positive macroeconomic indicators and a stable political scenario boosted the foreign investors' confidence to increase their positions in the Bangladesh stockmarket, said an analyst.

“While global growth is almost zero, Bangladesh showed outstanding and intact performance in different macro and social indicators this year among the frontier and emerging markets,” he said.

Bangladesh was also one of the biggest beneficiaries of the declining global commodity and oil prices.

The declining interest rate, resilient export growth, benign commodity prices, strong currency, massive infrastructure deals, rising income and the easing of political tension have helped, he added. Also known as portfolio investment, foreign investment accounts for around only 1 percent of the premier bourse's total market capitalisation, which stood at Tk 324,018 crore at the close of trade yesterday.

Banks are the foreign investors' preferred sector, but non-bank financial institutions, power and energy, pharmaceuticals, multinationals, telecoms and IT also caught their attention.

Foreign investors include global investment banks like Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and asset management firms like BlackRock.

Net foreign investment in 2015 was Tk 185.5 crore, up 93 percent year-on-year, according to DSE data.