SEOUL, May 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale logged a double-digit growth due to a surge in funding demand from both industrial and financial companies, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.
The issuance of corporate bonds jumped 42.5 percent over the month to 30.43 trillion won (21.9 billion U.S. dollars) in April after dropping in double figures in the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, came to 8.88 trillion won in April, up 111.4 percent compared to the prior month.
Financial companies-issued bonds soared 31.1 percent to 19.97 trillion won, while the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) retreated 17.7 percent to 1.58 trillion won last month.
The country's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage to 2.75 percent in February after lowering it by the same percentage in October and November last year.
Equity financing, including initial public offering (IPO) and rights issuance, reached 373.4 billion won in April, down 20.4 percent from a month earlier. (1 won equals 0.00072 U.S. dollars) ■
