China's first overseas stock-oriented QDII (qualified domestic institutional investor) fund has been given approval to increase its fund sales limit to 30 billion yuan (US$4 billion), Friday's Shanghai Securities Journal reported.

China Southern Fund Management Co Ltd said the State Administration of Foreign Exchange had officially approved its application to increase the fund sales, as subscription was near to 50 billion yuan (US$6.67 billion) in the first day, far exceeding the scheduled limit of 15 billion yuan (US$2 billion).

Despite the increase, subscription still exceeded the limit, meaning subscribers would only get a proportion of the fund they subscribed to, said sources with China Southern Fund Management.

The proportion could be around 60 percent, said Xu Xiaosong, deputy manager of China Southern Fund Management.

He said the proportion would be officially announced next Monday, and the remaining money would be returned to subscribers at the same time.

The yuan-denominated fund was launched on September 12 and would be invested in markets in 48 countries and regions, from which the ten most valuable would be carefully selected for key investment, said sources with the firm.

The stock-oriented QDII fund had given local investors opportunities to cash in on the mature markets in developed countries as well as fast-growing emerging markets, according to Guosen Securities.

China would experience a QDII fund sales peak as China Asset Management Co Ltd, Harvest Fund Management and China International Fund Management launched QDII fund products and other fund firms received regulatory approval to launch QDII funds, China Securities Journal said in an earlier report.