SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale logged a double-digit growth last month on the back of solid funding demand from both industrial and financial companies, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.
The issuance of corporate bonds jumped 52.0 percent over the month to 28.32 trillion won (19.7 billion U.S. dollars) in September after sliding in double figures in August, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, stood at 5.71 trillion won (4.0 billion dollars) in September, surging from 862.0 billion won (600.3 million dollars) in the previous month.
Financial companies-issued bonds swelled 22.0 percent to 20.67 trillion won (14.4 billion dollars), while the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) more than doubled to 1.94 trillion won (1.4 billion 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 (IPO) and rights issuance, reached 369.8 billion won (257.5 million dollars) in September, down 58.3 percent from a month earlier. ■
