SEOUL, July 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale grew in the first half owing to higher funding demand from both industrial and financial companies, financial watchdog data showed Monday.
The issuance of corporate bonds rose 9.3 percent from a year earlier to 145.70 trillion won (105.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, stood at 37.83 trillion won in the first half, up 12.9 percent compared to the same period of last year.
Financial companies-issued bonds increased 5.4 percent to 97.39 trillion won, while the issuance of asset-backed securities jumped 43.4 percent to 10.48 trillion won.
The country's central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points in February and May each to 2.50 percent after cutting it by the same basis points in October and November last year.
Equity financing, including initial public offering (IPO) and rights issuance, amounted to 4.23 trillion won in the first half, down 16.6 percent from a year earlier. (1 won equals 0.00072 U.S. dollars) ■
