Corporate financing in South Korea through the issuance of stocks and bonds rose in the first half on expected rate hike that would increase borrowing costs, financial watchdog data showed Thursday.

The sale of stocks and bonds by companies totaled 87.27 trillion won (77.94 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Corporate bond issuance grew 5.7 percent over the year to 81.57 trillion won (72.85 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half on expectations that the Bank of Korea (BOK) would lift its policy rate later this year.

The BOK has refrained from altering the benchmark rate since the bank raised it to the current 1.50 percent from an all-time low of 1.25 percent in November last year.

The central bank has been under pressure to raise the rate as the U.S. Federal Reserve increased its target rate to a range of 1.75-2.00 percent in June.

Bonds, sold by industrial companies, rose 1 percent, while those issued by financial companies advanced 6.2 percent. But banks' bond issuance tumbled 20.4 percent.

Initial public offering (IPO) tumbled 84.5 percent over the year to 546.4 billion won (488 million U.S. dollars) in the first half, but rights issuance surged 257.3 percent to 5.15 trillion won (4.6 billion U.S. dollars).