Bond sales rise in February

Bond sales in South Korea rose from a month earlier in February on a sharp increase in government bond issues, data showed Friday. The value of bonds sold here last month came to 71.8 trillion won (US$54.2 billion), up 7.9 trillion won from 64.2 trillion won sold the previous month, according to the data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. Corporate bond issuance gained 1.2 percent to 14.9 trillion won from 14.7 trillion won in January, while government bond issuance jumped nearly 30 percent on-month to 22.4 trillion won from 17.2 trillion won. Sales of environment, social and governance (ESG) bonds, a type of sustainability debt offering aimed at financing corporate activities in environmentally friendly and sustainable projects, stood at 5.9 trillion won in February, up 3.5 trillion won from a month before. Demand forecasting for corporate bonds came to 7.25 trillion won in January, down 1.68 trillion won from the same month last year. Foreign investors net purchased 5.5 trillion won wort h of local bonds last month, up from 4.6 trillion won in January, while individual investors also remained net buyers, scooping up 4.1 trillion won worth of bonds, up from 3.7 trillion won the previous month. Source: Yonhap News Agency