A recent survey identified liquidity crunch, market manipulation and political instability as the most significant challenges that the capital market faced in 2024.
The online survey, titled Bangladesh Capital Market Sentiment Survey 2025, was carried out by the LankaBangla Securities鈥� between December 13, 2024 and January 25 this year, with 101 participants from different backgrounds responding to the questionnaire.
According to the survey, more than 45 per cent of respondents rated the performance of Bangladesh鈥檚 capital market in 2024 as very poor, and 33.7 per cent rated the capital market鈥檚 performance in 2024 as poor.
Only 3 per cent voted that the capital market performed excellently, and 6.9 per cent thought it was good.
The survey sought input from respondents hailing from various backgrounds to derive opinion against queries on the passing year鈥檚 market performance, macroeconomic performances and expectations, general issues within the capital market and expectation for the current year regarding investment avenues, especially the capital market.
In the survey, 65.3 per cent of respondents believed that SME and commodity markets were ineffective, while 54.3 per cent was not satisfied with the bond market development, according to the survey.
However, 34.7 per cent of the respondents agreed, and 11.9 per cent strongly agreed that the political environment in 2025 would support market growth.
More than 32 per cent of respondents believed that stable macroeconomic conditions would be a key driver of market expansion.
Moreover, 24.8 per cent opined that the election of a political government as a critical factor for future growth.
Respondents expressed concerns over currency depreciation and political risks.
As key barriers to foreign investment, 34.7 per cent identified the currency depreciation and 30.7 per cent identified the political risks.
The respondents also rated transparency and accountability of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange commission poorly.
Among the participants, 49.5 per cent were not confident with the new leadership of the regulatory commission, and capacity constraints in the commission remained a concern for 48.5 per cent of respondents.
The integrity of Bangladesh鈥檚 financial markets was rated poorly by 50.5 per cent of respondents, while 28.7 per cent rated it below average.
The survey also found that respondents believed local political instability, high inflation, banking sector crisis, foreign exchange crisis and exceptionally poor private credit growth were the most significant risks for 2025.