China's financial institutions, including banks, insurers and securities firms, received 1.79 billion U.S. dollars of net direct investment from overseas investors in the second quarter, the nation's foreign exchange regulator said Thursday.

This compares to a net investment of 620 million U.S. dollars from overseas investors in the first quarter of the year, according to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Meanwhile, the country's financial institutions made a net equity investment worth 357 million U.S. dollars in overseas companies during the same period. The figure marked a sharp drop from 1.55 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter, the data showed.

The SAFE has been publicizing the data on a quarterly basis since 2012.