South Korea's foreign currency reserves hit a new high last month due to a rise in conversion value of non-dollar assets and a growth in investment returns, a report by the central bank showed Friday.

Foreign reserves reached a fresh record high of 322.01 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of September, up 5.13 billion dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The September figure was higher than the previous record of 316. 88 billion dollars tallied in August, and stayed above the 300- billion-dollar mark since April 2011 when it topped the level for the first time.

The 300-billion-dollar mark is viewed as the psychologically- important level to protect the local financial market from potential foreign capital exodus from the country that may come from a possible financial crisis.

The BOK attributed the September growth to a rise in conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets, including the European single currency and the British pound, as well as a gain in investment returns.

The country's foreign reserves consisted of 294.24 billion dollars of securities, 18.43 billion dollars of deposits, 3.53 billion dollars of special drawing rights (SDR), 2.83 billion dollars of International Monetary Fund (IMF) positions and 2.98 billion dollars of gold bullion.

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