SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale slightly fell in July due to weaker funding demand from industrial companies, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.
The issuance of corporate bonds reduced 0.5 percent over the month to 23.43 trillion won (16.9 billion U.S. dollars) in July, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, ran to 2.98 trillion won (2.2 billion dollars) in July, down 13.1 percent from a month earlier.
Financial companies-issued bonds increased 11.5 percent to 19.36 trillion won (13.9 billion dollars), but the issuance of asset-backed securities dropped 60.4 percent to 1.09 trillion won (786.3 million dollars).
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 and rights issuance, amounted to 4.81 trillion won (3.5 billion dollars) in July, sharply up from 392.3 billion won (283 million dollars) in the previous month. ■
