What are shares?
A company’s ownership is split into many small, equal pieces, and each piece is a share. Buying shares does not mean lending to the company; it means owning a small part of it. Your stake is the number of shares you hold out of all the company’s shares.
As an owner you share in both the good and the bad. If the company does well, the share price may rise and you may get a cut of the profit; if it does badly, the price may fall. Unlike a loan, there is no promise of getting back a set amount.
Say a biscuit company has 1 crore shares in total and Rakib buys 100 of them at Tk 50 each, Tk 5,000 in all. He now owns a tiny slice of the company. If the price is Tk 60 a year later, his shares are worth Tk 6,000; if it drops to Tk 40, they are worth Tk 4,000.
How it works
Shares of listed companies are bought and sold on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) or the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). You do not go to the exchange yourself: you place orders through a brokerage, and the shares are held electronically in a BO (beneficial owner) account in your name.
Shares pay you in two ways. First, dividends: when a company makes a profit it may pay part of it to shareholders, in cash or as bonus shares. Second, capital gains: if you sell for more than you paid, the difference is your gain. If the price falls, the opposite happens and you make a loss.
Prices are set by supply and demand: company earnings, interest rates, the economy, politics and rumours all play a part. A company is not obliged to pay a dividend, and no one can promise what a share will be worth.
Someone buys 1,000 shares at Tk 50, spending Tk 50,000. A cash dividend of Tk 2 a share brings in Tk 2,000 for the year (before tax). If the price ends the year at Tk 55, that is a paper gain of Tk 5,000; at Tk 40, a paper loss of Tk 10,000. Broker commission comes off on top. All figures are only examples.
Terms worth knowing
- BO account
- The electronic account that holds your shares, recorded at the Central Depository Bangladesh (CDBL). There is a yearly maintenance fee.
- Broker and commission
- The broker charges a small percentage of the value on every buy and sell; the rate differs between brokers.
- Categories (A, B, N, Z)
- The exchange groups companies by things like dividend payments and holding annual meetings. The Z category usually signals missed dividends or meetings.
- Index (DSEX)
- The DSE’s main index, showing whether the market as a whole is rising or falling. It has run since January 2013.
- Margin loans
- Borrowing from a broker or merchant bank to buy shares. If prices fall, losses multiply and your shares can be sold without your say (a forced sale).
How much the market moves
The DSEX started in January 2013 a little above 4,000 points. The Covid shock took it down to about 3,603 on 18 March 2020; by September 2021 it had climbed past 7,300, its highest since launch. It ended December 2025 at about 4,865, then rose more than 18% in the first half of 2026 to about 5,763.
So over 13 years the index ended up not far from where it began, with big swings in between. Those figures leave out dividends; adding them makes the total return somewhat higher. Individual shares can move far more than the index.
During sharp falls the regulator has at times set a minimum price (a floor price) for shares, as in 2020 and in 2022–2024. Prices held on paper, but many shares could not be sold at all.
What return to expect
Shares have no set rate. The index rises a lot in good years and falls a lot in bad ones: it gained about 21% in 2020 and about 25% in 2021, but fell 14–17% a year in 2018–19, about 16% in 2024 and about 7% in 2025.
Holding for longer usually smooths out the swings, but in Bangladesh the index barely rose overall across 2013–2025. So “shares always pay off in the long run” is not a guarantee. Results depend heavily on which shares, at what price, and when you buy and sell.
Why people choose it
- A share in a company’s growth, which fixed-interest products do not offer.
- You can start with a small amount.
- While the market is working normally, you can usually sell and get your money within a few days.
- Company financial reports are public, so you can check things yourself.
Points to weigh
- Prices can fall a long way; you may not get back what you put in.
- Dividends are not guaranteed.
- Rumours and manipulation affect prices, especially in small companies.
- In periods such as floor prices, selling can be hard.
- Doing it properly takes time and regular attention.
Tax
Tax on dividends: the company used to deduct 10–15% at source, and more could be due later depending on your tax bracket. The Finance Act for 2026–27 set a flat 15% on dividends for individual investors, treated as the final tax. The annual Finance Act can change this.
Gains from selling listed shares (capital gains): under the Income Tax Act 2023, in recent years an individual’s gains up to Tk 50 lakh (Tk 5 million) a year have been tax-free, with the part above that taxed at 15% from 2024–25. Sponsor and director shares follow different rules. These can change too.
Investing in listed shares can count towards the investment tax rebate, up to a limit set in the Finance Act. On every trade, a small tax on the transaction value is also collected at source and shows on the broker’s bill.
Tax rules can change with each year’s Finance Act. Before a big decision, check the latest rules or speak to a tax adviser.
How to get started
- Choose a brokerage and check that it is registered with BSEC.
- Open a BO account: you need your national ID, photographs, a bank account in your own name and your nominee’s details.
- Deposit money into your broker account, and get the commission rate and fees in writing.
- Before buying, read the company’s annual report and its earnings and dividend history.
- Regularly check your broker statement against your CDBL statement.
Check before you start
- Can I leave this money untouched for several years, even if prices fall?
- If this money halved, could I still cover my emergencies?
- Do I understand what the company does and how it makes money?
- Am I buying only on a rumour or someone’s “tip”?
- Am I using borrowed money or a margin loan?
- Am I putting everything into one or two shares?