The volume of corporate bonds issued during February has dropped remarkably compared to the previous month due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the stock market.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) 

According to a report released by SSI Securities Corporation on March 10, a total of 15 firms issued bonds in February worth a total VND5.574 trillion (around US$240 million). Real estate companies accounted for 72% of the bond value.

The number is only equal to 41% of the value of bonds issued in January.

For the two-month period, a total of VND19.4 trillion worth of corporate bonds were issued with an average maturity of 4.75 years and interest rate of 10.07% per annum.

Real estate firms made up 60% of the total volume or nearly VND11.64 trillion.

Only two banks issued bonds during January-February, which are the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) with VND230 billion worth of 10-year bonds, and the Tien Phong Commercial Bank (TPBank) with VND552 billion worth of 7-year bonds.

The stock market had a difficult time in February with the benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) ending the month plummeting 5.81% to 882.19 points. The VN-Allshare and VN30 Indexes also dropped 2.97% and 1.96%, respectively, from January.