[Inside News]

△ Hyundai Motor's Auto Sales Rise 27.6 Pct in April
South Korean automakers enjoyed strong sales at home and overseas last month amid a recovering global economy, data showed Monday.

The nation's five carmakers, led by Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp., sold a total of 582,009 units in April, up 39.1 percent from a year earlier.

Domestic sales rose 30.9 percent to 122,862 units and overseas sales climbed 41.4 percent to 459,147 units, according to the data.

Hyundai, the nation's top carmaker, said sales rose 27.6 percent in April from a year ago to 310,396 units.

"The rise in sales was driven by revamped models including the Tucson SUV and Sonata sedan," said a Hyundai official.

Kia saw sales soar 48.6 percent last month to 174,580 units.

GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., the local unit of General Motors Co., also reported a 51 percent jump to 66,003 units in April sales.

Renault Samsung Motors Co., owned by French automaker Renault SA, said sales more than doubled to 23,983 units last month.

Ssangyong Motor Co., which has been under bankruptcy protection for more than a year, sold 7,047 cars last month, up more than two-fold from a year earlier. But the sales volume was still tiny, given its annual production capacity of 200,000 units.

△S. Korea's ABS Issuance Halves in Q1

Sales of asset-backed securities (ABS) in South Korea nearly halved in the first quarter from a year earlier as companies resorted less to the funding vehicle, the financial watchdog said Monday.

ABS issuance stood at 3.92 trillion won (US$3.5 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 7.79 trillion won a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said.

ABS is a security whose value is derived from underlying assets such as car loans, home equity loans, credit card receivables and student loans.

Local lenders opted less for ABS and issued more bonds as a means of raising resource funds for loans because of lower interest costs in issuing such bonds, the FSS said in a statement.

Despite the overall decline, issuance of securities that are backed by mortgage loans gained 98.1 percent on-year to 1.99 trillion won, on the back of the rising demand for mortgage lending, according to the watchdog.

Local financial companies sold a combined 2.17 trillion won of ABS, with state agencies including Korea Asset Management Corp. floating 1.34 trillion won with other private firms issuing the remaining 450 million won in bonds, the regulator said.

(English News Team)