SEOUL, April 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korean companies almost quadrupled stock issuance in March compared with the previous month as higher interest rates weakened demand for corporate bond sales, financial watchdog data showed on Tuesday.
Stocks sold by companies increased to 979.3 billion won (858 million U.S. dollars) in March from 249.7 billion won in February, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Initial public offerings (IPOs) stood merely at 80.5 billion won, but rights offerings surged to 898.8 billion won last month.
Corporate bond sales posted a double-digit fall as market rates went higher following the U.S. Federal Reserve's recent rate hikes.
Companies sold 10.32 trillion won in bonds in March, down 25.4 percent from the previous month.
The Fed raised its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point in March to a range of 0.75-1.00 percent, while South Korea's central bank kept its policy rate at an all-time low of 1.25 percent since June last year.
