Companies raised over Rs 2.12 lakh crore through corporate bonds in the past fiscal, up 22.71 per cent over the previous fiscal, with a substantial amount of the proceeds flowing in during the fourth quarter.
The growth trend continued into the current fiscal as well, with companies garnering Rs 16,514.18 crore through issuing 139 such bonds in April, as against Rs 14,560.2 crore in the year-ago period. During 2008-09, Rs 1.73 lakh crore were raised through corporate bonds, according to the data released by market regulator Sebi.
Of the total amount that flowed into corporate bonds last fiscal, over Rs 73,616 crore were took place in the fourth quarter.
In all, there were 1,278 issuance of privately placed corporate bonds during 2009-10, up from 1,041 the previous fiscal, that were listed on the NSE and BSE later.
"Market conditions were much better in the past fiscal, compared to 2008-09, as a result of which there was an overall improvement in corporate fund-raising," said SMC Capitals Equity Head Jagannadham Thunuguntla.
He, however, added that the secondary markets in the country is still not very liquid. "There is not much active trading in the listed corporate bonds in the market," Thunuguntla added.