SHANGHAI, June 15 -- Overseas institutions increased their holdings of Chinese interbank bonds in May, official data showed on Thursday.

By the end of May, bonds in China's interbank market held by overseas institutions reached 3.19 trillion yuan (about 446.22 billion U.S. dollars), said a report released by the People's Bank of China Shanghai Head Office.

The figure showed a rise of 20 billion yuan from the end of April.

In May, seven new overseas institutional investors entered China's interbank bond market, bringing the total to 1,091, according to the report.