The Hindu Business Line : Forex reserves up $761 m

THE country's forex reserves rose by $761 million to touch $104.998 billion during the week ended January 30, 2004 against $104.23 billion in the previous week, according to the latest RBI statistics.

The rise in reserves was largely due to a corresponding rise in foreign currency assets with RBI, which also surged by $761 million to touch $100.780 billion during this period.

According to the Weekly Statistical Supplement, foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation and depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, the sterling and the yen.

The domestic currency ended strong at 45.2775/28 amid good amount of dollar liquidity in the market on Friday.

Dealers said the market was consistently flushed with funds and due to the absence of any corporate demand for the greenback the rupee has been strengthening steadily. However, RBI steps in from time to time to check any sharp appreciation in the currency by mopping up excess dollar liquidity.

Meanwhile, the domestic debt market was a little choppy towards the fag end of the week due to a higher level of inflation, at 6.12 per cent, which was not in line with market expectations. As a result, although the market continues to be awash with liquidity, with over Rs 40,000 crore going into the RBI repos, bond prices crashed by around 50-60 paise in the longer maturities on Friday.