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WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's holdings of U.S. Treasury securities dropped for the first time in eight months in September, but remained the largest holder of U.S. treasuries.

China cut its U.S. treasuries holdings by 19.7 billion U.S. dollars in September, with the total holdings down to 1.18 trillion dollars, the latest data from the U.S. Treasury Department showed on Wednesday.

Japan also reduced its U.S. treasuries holdings by 5.7 billion dollars to 1.096 trillion dollars in the month and remained the second largest U.S. treasuries holder.

By the end of September, overall foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities rose to 6.3235 trillion dollars from August's 6.2698 trillion dollars.

As Chinese economy is gaining steady growth momentum, the cross-border capital flows in China remain stable in the short term, which has supported the steady increases in the country's foreign exchange reserves.

By the end of October, China's forex reserves rose 700 million U.S. dollars to 3.1 trillion U.S. dollars, rising for nine consecutive months.