Corporate direct financing in South Korea expanded 23.2 percent in August from the previous month largely due to an increase in financial bond issuances, data showed Thursday.
Local companies raised a combined 19.79 trillion won (US$14.86 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last month, up 3.72 trillion won from July, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
Direct financing refers to raising funds directly from the stock and bond markets without borrowing from banks and other financial institutions.
Stock sales contracted 11.7 percent on-month to 566.9 billion won due to a fall in paid-in capital increases, despite a rise in initial public offerings.
But bond sales jumped 24.6 percent on-month to 19.2 trillion won largely thanks to a steep increase in financial debentures.
As of end-August, the value of outstanding corporate bonds had come to 628.5 trillion won, up 0.6 percent from a month ago.
The data also showed that local firms issued 32.2 trillion won worth of commercial papers in August, down 8.3 percent on-month, and 63.05 trillion won worth of short-term bonds, up 7.1 percent on-month.
Source: Yonhap News Agency