Sales of equity-linked securities (ELS) in South Korea swelled nearly 13 percent in the first half of the year despite the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday.

The value of ELS issues stood at 35.6 trillion won ($30.9 billion) in the January-June period, up 12.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository.

The figure, however, was down 5.1 percent from the 37.5 trillion won floated during the second half of last year.

ELS refers to hybrid debt securities whose returns are linked to the performance of underlying equities, including a stock index.

Sales of ELS tracking the S&P 500 and other foreign stock indexes all shot up, while those of ELS based on South Korea's benchmark Kospi sank 13.6 percent.

ELS products worth 43.7 trillion won were redeemed in the six-month period, up 71.5 percent from a year earlier but down 17.4 percent from six months earlier.

The outstanding value of ELS products stood at 53.8 trillion won as of end-June, down 31 percent from a year earlier and 13.1 percent from the end of December. (Yonhap)