SEOUL, March 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale rose in single digits last month due to solid funding demand from financial companies, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.
The issuance of corporate bonds amounted to 26.24 trillion won (19.7 billion U.S. dollars) in February, up 4.5 percent compared to the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
It was attributable to robust financing demand from financial firms that offset weaker demand from industrial companies.
The country's central bank had left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50 percent since January last year.
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, shrank 11.2 percent from a month earlier to 8.86 trillion won (6.6 billion dollars) in February.
Financial companies-issued bonds increased 7.4 percent to 15.87 trillion won (11.9 billion dollars), while the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) advanced to 1.51 trillion won (1.1 billion dollars) in February from 370.5 billion won (277.8 million dollars) in the previous month.
Equity financing, including initial public offering (IPO) and rights issuance, stood at 242.8 billion won (182 million dollars) in February, down 12.6 percent from the previous month. ■
