Corporate direct financing in South Korea dropped from a month earlier in May partly on a sharp decline in the sale of stocks, data showed Wednesday.
Local companies raised a combined 21.18 trillion won (US$15.33 billion) by selling stocks and bonds in May, down 14.1 percent from the previous month, according to the data from 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 issuance plunged 70.2 percent on-month to 49.4 billion won while the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) more than halved from 10 in April to four, with the amount of stocks sold through IPOs plummeting 85.8 percent from 558 billion won to 79.5 billion won.
Rights offerings also fell 10.5 percent to 130 billion won over the cited period.
Bond sales dipped 12.4 percent on-month to 20.97 trillion won last month.
As of end-May, the value of outstanding corporate bonds stood at 660.8 trillion won,
up 3.5 trillion won, or 0.5 percent, from a month earlier.
Local businesses issued 97.5 trillion won worth of commercial papers in May, down 7.7 percent from a month earlier, while they also issued 61.6 trillion won worth of short-term bonds, down 11.6 percent from 69.7 billion won issued in April.
Source: Yonhap News Agency