China granted $910 million worth of investment quotas to 11 foreign institutional investors in March, paving the way for them to buy Chinese stocks and bonds.

The quotas, under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) scheme, were awarded to overseas institutions including Generali Fund Management S.A. and Cutwater Investor Services Corp.

By the end of March, China had awarded a combined $41.745 billion in QFII quotas to 197 foreign institutions.

QFII funds that invest only in China-traded A shares posted an average loss of 1.51 percent in February, underperforming China's main CSI300 Index, which declined 0.5 percent during the period, according to Thomson Reuters Lipper.