Bond sales fall in Aug. on reduced gov’t, corporate bond issuance

Bond sales in South Korea shrank from a month earlier in August due to a decline in government and corporate bond issues, data showed Monday. The value of bonds sold last month came to 70.2 trillion won (US$52.4 billion), down 1.2 trillion won from a month before, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. The value of outstanding bonds, on the other hand, surged 12.6 trillion won to 2,812.9 trillion won on a rise in the net issuance of government and monetary stabilization bonds. In August, the country issued 18.6 trillion won in Treasurys, sharply down from 21.3 trillion won issued the previous month. Corporate bond issuance also declined by nearly 1 trillion won on-month to 6.8 trillion won from 7.76 trillion won over the cited period, the data showed. Demand forecasting for corporate bonds came to 2.2 trillion won in August, up 974 billion won from the same month last year. Sales of environment, social and governance bonds, a type of sustainability debt offering aimed at financing corporate activities in environmentally friendly and sustainable projects, came to 7.7 trillion won in August, up 1.9 trillion won from the previous month. Offshore investors net purchased 11.6 trillion won worth of local bonds in August, marking their highest monthly net purchase in the year. Their overall bond holdings stood at 259.4 trillion won as of end-August, up 9.4 trillion won from a month earlier. Source: Yonhap News Agency