SEOUL, April 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale grew in single digits due to strong demand for asset-backed securities (ABS), financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.
The issuance of corporate bonds rose 3.4 percent from a month earlier to 19.54 trillion won (about 13.26 billion U.S. dollars) in March, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
Bonds sold by industrial companies declined 6.5 percent to 4.78 trillion won last month.
Financial companies' bond sale edged up 0.6 percent to 13.44 trillion won, while the ABS issuance surged 208.7 percent to 1.32 trillion won.
Outstanding corporate bonds amounted to 747.32 trillion won at the end of March, down 0.2 percent from a month earlier.
Equity financing, including initial public offering and rights issuance, came to 440.2 billion won in March, up 28.9 percent compared to the previous month. ■
