South Korea's corporate direct financing edged up in September from the previous month due to a surge in bond sales, data showed Wednesday.

Local companies raised a combined 19.6 trillion won ($16.8 billion) by selling stocks and bonds in September, up 1.4 percent from a month ago, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Corporate bond sales swelled 18.2 percent on-month to 17.6 trillion won in September.

In contrast, local firms' stock sales tumbled 54.5 percent to slightly over 2 trillion won due mainly to a sharp drop in initial public offerings.

Local corporations raised 1.4 trillion won through IPOs last month, down 65.6 percent from August.

Meanwhile, corporate sales of commercial paper short-term bonds sank 9.9 percent on-month to 137.2 trillion won last month, according to the data. (Yonhap)