Corporate direct financing in South Korea contracted 32.8 percent in July from the previous month, data showed Wednesday.

Local companies raised a combined 16.07 trillion won ($12.03 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last month, down 7.85 trillion won from June, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Direct financing refers to raising funds directly from the stock and bond markets without borrowing from banks and other financial institutions.

Stock sales shot up 58.6 percent on-month to 640.9 billion won thanks to 12 initial public offering cases and seven paid-in capital increases, but bond sales decreased 34.4 percent on-month to 15.4 trillion won due to rate hikes.

As of end-July, the value of outstanding corporate bonds had come to 624.3 trillion won, down 0.1 percent from a month ago.

The data also showed that local firms issued 35.13 trillion won worth of commercial papers in July, up 2.5 percent on-month, and 58.87 trillion won worth of short-term bonds, down 18.1 percent on-month. (Yonhap)