Companies listed on South Korea's main KOSPI market have seen their financial soundness improve on decreased debts, data showed Monday.

Their average debt ratio stood at 111.12 percent at the end of September, down 6.05 percentage points from late last year, according to the Korea Exchange and the Korea Listed Companies Association.

They compiled data from 622 listed firms, with those of 104 others unavailable yet.

The debt ratio is a key measure of a company's financial health, meaning the proportion of its assets that are financed by debts.

The combined debts of the companies dropped 1.29 percent to 1,140 trillion won ($964 billion) as of the end of the third quarter of 2016 from the end of last year.

Their total assets posted a 4.08 percent rise to 1,026 trillion won, the data showed.

The number of those with a debt ratio of 100 percent or less was 372, and 95 others had more than 200 percent of the debt ratio. (Yonhap)