China’s prodigious savers pulled more money out of bank deposits last month than ever, with most of it thought to be flowing into the booming stock market, according to the People’s Bank of China.

Numbers issued by the bank on Wednesday showed net household deposits in the Chinese banking system fell by Rmb278.4bn ($36.4bn, €27.4bn, £18.5bn) in May to Rmb17,100bn, the second month in a row of record outflows after households took Rmb167.4bn out of the system in April.