SHANGHAI, Feb. 19 -- Bonds in China's interbank market held by overseas institutions stood at 3.28 trillion yuan (477.72 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of January, about 2.6 percent of the total custody of the country's interbank bond market, official data shows.

The figure was lower than the 3.39 trillion yuan registered at the end of December last year, according to data released by the People's Bank of China Shanghai Head Office.

In breakdown, overseas institutions held 2.23 trillion yuan of treasury bonds and 720 billion yuan of policy financial bonds at the end of January.

In January, four new overseas institutional investors entered China's interbank bond market, bringing the total number to 1,075 by the end of last month.