The sales of stocks and bonds by South Korean companies went down 6.9 percent in October from a month earlier as they scaled back on bond issuance, the financial watchdog said Thursday.
  

Local firms raised a combined 10.18 trillion won ($8.9 billion) last month by selling stocks and bonds, compared with 10.94 trillion won logged in the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
  

Corporate debt issuance skidded 8.8 percent on-month to 9.58 trillion won last month, as local firms refrained from selling debts amid lingering credit risks stemming from local shipbuilders, including the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co.
  

But the growth in equity issues capped the decrease, according to the watchdog. Buoyed by 10 initial public offerings, the equity issuance came to 597.5 billion won in October from 434.9 billion won from the month before.
  

Financial firms were among the major debt sellers, with Shinhan Bank, the country's third-largest lender by assets, selling 742.2 billion won worth of corporate bonds.
  

For the first nine months of the year, corporate direct financing gained 8.7 percent on-year to 109.58 trillion won from the previous year's 107.88 trillion won, the watchdog said. (Yonhap)