Canadian investors purchased a record $9.2 billion of foreign securities in March, while foreign investors purchased $3.3 billion worth of Canadian securities.

Statistics Canada said Canadian investors split their dollars between record purchases in both foreign bonds, at $4.8 billion, and foreign equities, at $4.3 billion.

While Canadians invested strongly in U.S. government and U.S. corporate bonds, the bulk of the investment – $2.2 billion – went into overseas bonds.

A sizeable portion of this record investment overseas consisted of so-called “Maple bonds,” in which foreign issues are denominated in Canadian dollars.

Canadian investors continued to invest heavily in U.S. stocks ($2.5 billion) while making a near-record purchase of $1.9 billion in overseas shares.

Meanwhile, Canadians acquired a nominal $67 million in foreign money market paper.