Foreign demand for long-term U.S. financial assets grew in June, according to a Treasury Department report released Monday.

At the same time, China trimmed its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities from $801.5 billion in May to $776.4 billion in June. Meanwhile, Japan and the U.K. slightly boosted their holdings.

Overall, net foreign purchases of long-maturity U.S. securities totaled $71.3 billion in June following sales of $36.9 billion the month before.

The monthly Treasury report highlights cross-border acquisitions of securities with maturities of more than one year including non-market transactions such as stock swaps and principal repayment on asset-backed securities.

The closely-watched figure excluding transactions that don't occur on an open market recorded net buying of $90.7 billion in long-term U.S. securities, after sales of $19.4 billion in May, according to the monthly Treasury International Capital report, known as TIC.

The report's most comprehensive category, "monthly net TIC flows," includes non-market flows, short-term securities and changes in banks' dollar holdings. This measure of net foreign capital outflow was $31.2 billion in June, versus an outflow of $65.7 billion the previous month.

Financial market analysts consider the monthly data from the Treasury Department to be a significant but imprecise gauge of how easily the U.S. can finance its trade deficit. The June TIC flow compares with the $27.01 billion trade deficit during the month, reported last week by the Commerce Department.

Within the long-term securities category, foreign net purchases of U.S. Treasury notes and bonds was $100.5 billion in June, compared with net sales of $22.6 billion in May.

Private foreign investors bought a net $77.6 billion in Treasury notes and bonds in June, after selling $343 million the previous month. Meanwhile, foreign official institutions such as central banks bought a net $22.5 billion of these Treasurys, compared with net sales of $21.8 billion the month before.

Net foreign purchases of debt issued by U.S. government-sponsored agencies like Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) totaled $5.1 billion in June, compared with a $12.8 billion in purchases in May.

For U.S. equities, net foreign purchases totaled $19.1 billion in June, compared with purchases of $16.7 billion the previous month.

For corporate bonds, net foreign sales were $1.0 billion, versus purchases totaling $927 million the previous month.

China, according to the June data, held on to its new title as the largest holder of U.S. Treasury securities. China's holdings totaled $776.4 billion, followed by Japan's $711.8 billion and the U.K.'s $214.0 billion.

The TICs data, typically released around the 11th business day of the month, can be found on the Treasury's Web site at: http://www.treas.gov/tic. With each monthly release, Treasury revises the previous month's data as well.

The next report, covering July, is scheduled for release on Sept. 16, 2009.

-By Maya Jackson Randall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9255, maya.jackson-randall@dowjones.com