In January eight qualified foreign institutional investors, or QFIIs, gained a $1.36 billion investment quota from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

By the end of January, SAFE has approved a $39.99 billion investment quota for 177 foreign institutions, compared with a cumulative investment of $37.4 billion as of December.

The total QFII quota had been raised to $80 billion last year.

The approved renminbi-QFII quota has increased to 70 billion yuan and that for the qualified domestic institutional investors, the so-called QDIIs, has been lifted up to $85.53 billion until January, according to data from SAFE.

Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission said earlier in Hong Kong that the QFII and RQFII quota is likely to expand by 10 times in the future.