Corporate direct financing drops in May

Sales of corporate bonds and stocks in Korea fell 29.3 percent last month from a month earlier due largely to a cut in corporate bond issuance, government data showed Tuesday.

In May, Korean companies raised 10.26 trillion won ($8.7 billion) by selling bonds and stocks, compared with 14.52 trillion won the previous month, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service.

"As major industries (shipping and shipbuilding companies) have come under restructuring, the investor sentiment has cooled down recently," an FSS official said by phone.

The value of corporate bonds, including bank bonds and asset-backed securities, issued locally last month, fell 29.7 percent month-over-month to 10.09 trillion won, the FSS said. An ABS is a security in which its income payments and hence value are derived from and backed by a pool of underlying assets. Stock offerings reached 169.6 billion won last month, a 0.8 percent on-month decline, the data showed.

In the January-May period, a total of 46.61 trillion won worth of bonds and stocks were sold, down 5 percent from 49.09 trillion won a year earlier. The sales of stocks rose 50.5 percent to 2.55 trillion won from 1.69 trillion won during the same period, it said. (Yonhap)