BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's insurance capital investments hit 2.45 trillion yuan (358 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months of this year, according to the country's insurance regulator.

    In July alone, the investments from insurance funds stood at 120.4 billion yuan, China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said in a report on its website.

    Of the total insurance investment value, about 332 billion yuan, or 9.8 percent, went to the stock markets by the end of the second quarter of this year.

    During the same period, mutual funds investments suck 228.45 billion yuan, or 6.8 percent from the insurance capital.

    A booming equities market and an optimistic attitude towards the country's stock markets had led to an increasing investments, said the CIRC.

    Comparatively, in the first seven months, bank deposit of China's insurance capital decreased to 1.03 trillion yuan, 15.23 billion yuan less than in the first six months.

    The CIRC's statistics also reflected a slowdown increasing rate in premium income in the first seven months. Premium income was 678.64 billion yuan, representing a small increase of 80 billion yuan than the June figure.