Foreign-exchange reserves hit a record high of $405.7 billion at the end of October, up $8.69 billion from the previous high set in September, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The rise primarily stems from a series of yen-selling interventions made for dollars and euros to stem the yen's rise since Sept. 17.

The foreign reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated in foreign currencies, International Monetary Fund reserve positions, IMF special drawing rights and gold.

Japan had $320.37 billion in foreign securities and $69.66 billion in foreign currency deposits.

Of the deposits, $5.58 billion were at foreign central banks and the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements, $39.84 billion at Japanese banks and $24.24 billion at foreign banks.

Japan also had $6.42 billion in IMF reserve positions, $2.39 billion in IMF SDRs and $6.86 billion in gold.

Japan was the largest holder of foreign reserves of any country or territory for the 23rd consecutive month, based on the data available at the end of October.

The 12-member euro zone ranked second with $256.2 billion at the end of June. The zone consists of Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

Among other major holders of foreign reserves, China had $188 billion and Hong Kong $114.5 billion at the end of July.

They were followed by Taiwan with $113.7 billion at the end of August and South Korea with $97 billion at the end of July.

Record intervention

Currency intervention in the July-September period totaled 3.2107 trillion yen, a new record for quarterly intervention, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry said Japan sold 3.1455 trillion yen for the dollar and 65.2 billion yen for the euro in its interventions conducted between Sept. 17 and 28.

Japan conducted the interventions to stem the rise of the yen in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States.

"There was huge dollar-selling pressure after the Sept. 11 incident," a ministry officials said.

"We took appropriate actions by taking into consideration whether the yen and the dollar reflected the economic fundamentals."

The official acknowledged that some interventions were conducted by foreign central banks on behalf of Japan, but did not elaborate on whether there was joint intervention.

Dollar-buying, yen-selling interventions were conducted on Sept. 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 27 and 28, with the most for a single day being 1.2874 trillion yen on Sept. 21, the ministry said.

Euro-buying, yen-selling interventions were conducted on Sept. 24, 26 and 27, it said.

The median exchange rate on Sept. 17 was 117.85 yen to the dollar, compared with 119 yen on the previous business day, Sept. 14, the official said.