The financial stability of South Korea's listed firms has improved in the third quarter as their equity capital grew faster than liabilities, the main bourse operator said Monday.

The average debt-to-equity ratio for 611 companies listed on the main KOSPI market came to 122.03 percent at the end of September, down 3.32 percentage points from the end of 2014, to sit at 1.19 quadrillion won ($1.03 trillion), according to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange.

The debt ratio is calculated by dividing total liabilities by equity capital, representing a company's level of financial risk. A debt ratio above 100 means a company has more debt than equity capital.

The improvement came as the tallied firms' equity capital grew by a wider margin than the pace at which their liabilities rose, according to the KRX. The surveyed firms' equity capital grew 6.61 percent to 979.54 trillion won during the cited period.

Of the total, 346 companies, or 56.6 percent, had a debt ratio below the threshold of 100 percent, while 16.4 percent owed more than twice as much as their capital base, the data showed.

The electronics, electrical parts and real estate industries reduced their debt ratio, while the construction and pharmaceutical sectors, among others, did the opposite, according to the KRX. (Yonhap)