OTTAWA  - Foreign investors resumed their purchases of Canadian securities in July following a divestment in the previous month, led by a record acquisition of bonds, data from Statistics Canada showed on Monday.

International investors bought $24 billion in Canadian securities after selling a revised $858 million in June.

June's purchases were driven by $23.8 billion in Canadian bonds. Investment in new issues of private corporate bonds in foreign markets contributed the most to the increase at $11.4 billion. Nearly half of these new bonds were issued by Canadian banks, the statistics agency said.

Foreign investors also bought $8 billion in federal government bonds and $2.9 billion in provincial government bonds. The increased investment came alongside a 35-basis-point increase in Canadian long-term interest rates in July, as the Bank of Canada raised its benchmark rate for the first time in nearly seven years.

At the same time, Canadian investors sold $1.8 billion in foreign securities as they reduced their holdings of equities by $2.9 billion.

Despite the decrease, Canadians have bought $31.3 billion in foreign shares this year so far, compared to a divestment of $243 million in the same time period last year. U.S. stock prices are up 10.4 per cent since last December.