S. Korea's corporate bond sale logs double-digit growth in January

SEOUL, March 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond sale logged a double-digit growth in January on stronger funding demand from industrial companies, financial watchdog data showed Friday.

The issuance of corporate bonds swelled 13.9 percent over the month to 17.64 trillion won (11.99 billion U.S. dollars) in January, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Bonds sold by industrial companies totaled 7.18 trillion won (4.9 billion dollars) in January, surging from 230 billion won (156.4 million dollars) tallied in December last year.

Financial companies' bond sales dived 29.4 percent to 9.71 trillion won (6.6 billion dollars), and the issuance of asset-backed securities tumbled 50.4 percent in the cited month.

Outstanding corporate bonds totaled 752.86 trillion won (511.8 billion dollars) at the end of January, down 0.5 percent from a month earlier.

Equity financing, including initial public offering and rights issuance, stood at 108.2 billion won (73.6 million dollars) in January, down 95.7 percent compared to the previous month. Enditem