Foreigners dramatically stepped up their purchases of Canadian securities in November, snapping up C$14.99 billion ($14.84 billion) worth, compared with just C$3.85 billion in October, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday.

The inflow of funds from abroad was the highest since the C$15.32 billion recorded in May 2011.

Canada is an attractive target for investors seeking good returns amid the economic crisis in Europe and a challenged U.S. economy. That said, foreign purchases in the first 11 months of 2011 totaled C$88.17 billion, down from C$107.25 billion in the same 11-month period of 2010.

Overseas investors bought C$6.22 billion of Canadian bonds, primarily in secondary market purchases of government bonds and acquisitions of new corporate bond issues.

For the fifth month running, foreigners bought money market paper, this time to the tune of C$5.67 billion. They also bought C$3.09 billion of Canadian corporate shares, sharply higher than the C$182 million in October.

Canadians boosted their investments in foreign securities to C$2.77 billion in November from C$2.13 billion in October. They bought C$1.55 billion in bonds for the third straight month of investment following six months of divestment.

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