BEIJING — Trading volume under China's Bond Connect program in March reached 478.2 billion yuan (about $68.31 billion), according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS).

In spite of the global outbreak of COVID-19, the program has been operating in a robust manner, with headway in both primary and secondary markets, the CFETS noted in its monthly report for the program.

The program saw a total of 5,007 trade tickets, with an average daily turnover at 21.7 billion yuan last month, the report showed.

In breakdown, policy financial bonds and treasury bonds accounted for 50 percent and 30 percent of the total trading volume in March, respectively.

Turnover of trading in negotiable certificates of deposit accounted for 16 percent of the monthly trading volume, according to CFETS.

The Bond Connect program, launched in July 2017, is a mutual market access scheme which allows overseas investors to invest in the Chinese mainland's interbank bond market using financial institutions on the mainland and in Hong Kong.