Seoul - South Korea witnessed a rise in bond sales during November, primarily fueled by a significant uptick in bonds sold by financial institutions. According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, the total value of bonds sold in South Korea amounted to 71.5 trillion won (approximately US$54.7 billion) last month, marking an increase of 3.9 trillion won from the previous month.
According to Yonhap News Agency, The yield on three-year Treasury bonds experienced a substantial decline, dropping 50.2 basis points from October to close at 3.586 percent at the end of November.
While government bond issuance saw a reduction of over 4 trillion won, settling at 8.4 trillion won, corporate bond sales increased slightly by 150 billion won. Notably, the sale of bank bonds surged by more than 9 trillion won, reaching over 38.3 trillion won.
Sales of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) bonds, which are aimed at financing environmentally friendly and sustainable projects, stood at 3.2 trillion won in November. This figure represents a decrease of 2.2 trillion won from the previous month.
In terms of investor participation, individual investors purchased a net total of 3.4 trillion won worth of bonds in November, slightly up from 3 trillion won in October. Foreign investors, on the other hand, bought a net 4.85 trillion won in bonds, a decrease from their 5.1 trillion won investment in October.