S Korea's foreign reserves grow to nearly 311 bln USD in Oct.

South Korea's foreign reserves grew to 310.98 billion U.S. dollars in October due to a rise in conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets and an increase in investment profits, the central bank said Wednesday. Foreign reserves reached 310.98 billion dollars as of the end of October, up 7.6 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The October reading posted the third-largest amount in history since the reserves hit an all-time high of 312.19 billion dollars in August. "Last month, the foreign reserves grew due to rising conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets and a growth in investment profits. The Europe's shared currency and the British pound appreciated against the dollar last month," Shin Jae-hyuk, an economist at BOK, told reporters. The euro advanced 3.4 percent against the greenback in October, while the British pound appreciated 3.2 percent versus the dollar. The Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar gained by nine percent and 4.9 percent per dollar respectively last month. The country's foreign reserves consisted of 280.12 billion dollars of securities, 23.69 billion dollars of deposits, 3.58 billion dollars of special drawing right (SDR), 2.27 billion dollars of International Monetary Fund (IMF) positions and 1.32 billion dollars of gold bullion. As of the end of September, South Korea was the world's eighth- largest holder of foreign reserves following China, Japan, Russia, China's Taiwan, Switzerland, Brazil and India.