It said total holdings of equities, notes and bonds increased a net $19.1bn in January - down from $63.3bn in the previous month.

Including short-term securities and bank lending data, foreigners sold a net $33.4bn compared with purchases of $53.6bn a month earlier.

Net foreign purchases of long-term US securities were $36.1bn.

Of this amount, net purchases by private foreign investors were $40.3bn, and net purchases by foreign official institutions were negative $4.2bn.

US residents purchased a net $17.0bn of long-term foreign securities.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire