South Korea's foreign reserves grew to a fresh record high of 315.95 billion U.S. dollars last month as a reduction in conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets was offset by an increase in investment profits, the central bank said Tuesday.

Foreign reserves reached a new high of 315.95 billion dollars as of the end of March, up 0.15 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The March figure surpassed the previous record high for two straight months after the February reserves exceeded the prior high of 312.29 billion dollars tallied in August 2011. The reserves breached above the 300 billion dollar mark for the first time in April last year.

The BOK attributed the March growth to an increase in investment profits that outweighed a reduction in conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets such as Europe's shared currency and the Japanese yen.

The country's foreign reserves consisted of 284.59 billion dollars of securities, 22.99 billion dollars of deposits, 3.54 billion dollars of special drawing right (SDR), 2.66 billion dollars of International Monetary Fund (IMF) positions and 2.17 billion dollars of gold bullion.

As of the end of February, South Korea was the world's seventh- largest holder of foreign reserves following China, Japan, Russia, China's Taiwan, Brazil and Switzerland.