South Korea's foreign reserves rose in March on an increased return on investment, central bank data showed Wednesday.

Foreign currency reserves reached 405.25 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of March, up 0.58 billion U.S. dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It was a turnaround from a reduction of 0.84 billion U.S. dollars in the previous month as the bank's return on investment grew last month.

The foreign reserves were composed of 377.5 billion U.S. dollars of securities, 17.27 billion U.S. dollars of deposits, 4.79 billion U.S. dollars of gold bullion, 3.36 billion U.S. dollars of special drawing rights and 2.32 billion U.S. dollars of IMF positions.

South Korea was the world's eighth-largest holder of foreign reserves as of end-February.