23/04/2026
DSEX now stands at 5745, not 5298!
The graph below tells a very interesting story of what happened with the stock market in Bangladesh since the US-Israel war on Iran over the last 2 months.
Since February 26, DSEX has fallen from 5,600 to 5,299. A 5.4% drop. Every headline calls it a market sell-off.
It isn't.
Take the closing price of every listed equity on the same day ( excluding bonds, mutual funds, and thinly traded NBFIs) and compute a simple equal-weighted index. The average Bangladeshi share is actually up 2.6% over the same window, to 5,745.
That gap between the official DSEX and an equal-weighted DSEX can be explained by a handful of mega-caps — BATBC, Linde, Islami Bank, BRAC Bank — that carry the index on their backs. The paradox can be explained by the sharp rise of many small and mid-cap stocks like:
→ HFL: +124%
→ BD Autocars: +94%
→ Apex Spinning: +87%
→ Asiatic Lab: +86%
→ Daffodil Computers: +85%
→ Dominage Steel: +74%
→ Meghna Pet: +64%
→ BNICL: +64%
→ Legacy Footwear: +60%
→ BD Lamps: +58%
There are at least 50 stocks that are up more than 20%
..and the drop of a handful of heavy-cap stocks like:
→ Linde BD: −21%
→ Islami Bank: −21%
→ BATBC: −20%
→ BRAC Bank: −16%
Breadth is fine. Concentration is the problem.
Next time someone tells you the market is bleeding, ask which index they are looking at.
Note: Back in February, I said the market would go up. I repeated the same view in March and April. I’m still holding the same position.
©Sojib Hossain.