SHANGHAI, March 24 -- Overseas institutions increased their holdings of Chinese interbank bonds in February, official data has showed.

By the end of last month, bonds in China's interbank market held by overseas institutions reached 3.95 trillion yuan (about 556.3 billion U.S. dollars), said a report released by the People's Bank of China Shanghai Head Office.

The figure showed a rise of 80 billion yuan from the end of January.

In February, three new overseas institutional investors entered China's interbank bond market, bringing the total to 1,128, according to the report.