The Hindu Business Line : Forex reserves up by $163 m

AIDED in part by a revaluation in the central bank's basket of currencies, the country's forex kitty was enhanced by $163 million (about Rs 700 crore) for the week ended December 31, 2004, as per the latest Reserve Bank of India statistics.

The total reserves as on that date were at $131.178 billion against $131.015 billion in the previous week.

Foreign currency assets grew by $115 million to $125.164 billion. Gold reserves surged by $42 million to touch $4.582 billion. Reserve tranche position went up by $6 million to touch $1.427 billion, according to RBI's weekly statistical supplement.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation and depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, sterling, yen etc held in the reserves.

Meanwhile, the domestic currency closed at 43.81/82 on January 7, around 33 paise lower than its opening levels on Monday at 43.48/49.

The rupee erased gains on account of a good round of dollar buying by corporates and banks, which were holding short-positions.

Analysts are of the view that FII outflows in the equity markets have also been responsible for the rupee's depreciation. Added to this, the greenback has been strengthening against international currency majors over the past few days.

These trends are likely to keep the rupee bogged down, if they continue over the next few days, dealers said.

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