Bond rates rises 0.11 point

The Hyundai Group shock is sending the nation¡¯s money market into jitters again.

The money market, which had shown signs of recovery with the help of the government¡¯s market stabilization measures released last month, is suffering escalating unrest, battered by a downgrade in ratings of Hyundai Engineering and Construction by a domestic credit rating agency.

Transactions in the domestic money market were sharply contracted Tuesday mainly due to overwhelming uneasiness about possible drops in ratings for almost all corporate bonds and commercial papers, excluding those of the top three business groups.

Hit by the severe market shrinkage, the CB transactions finished Tuesday with rates at 9.22%, drastically up 0.11 percentage point from the day before. Treasury bond rates soared by 0.15 point to 8.16%. In particular, a speculation over a possible reshuffle of the government¡¯s financial heads further fueled the hikes in interest rates.

¡°The market already has lost its self-correcting power,¡± a staff member at Samsung Investment Trust Management said. ¡°This sentiment could not be easily reversed without any special countermeasures by the government and Hyundai itself.¡±