The Hindu Business Line : Forex reserves vault by $2.96 b

The forex reserves have touched a record $151.62 billion for the week-ended March 31. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by $2.5 billion to $148.662 billion.

This is the tenth consecutive week that there has been an increase to the forex reserves.

According to the RBI's weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets increased by $2.949 billion to touch $145.108 billion during the week. Foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, sterling and yen.

According to a senior forex dealer at a private bank, the central bank was buying dollars heavily during the week under consideration. There were FII inflows of $352 .8 million in that particular week.

"The central bank has been trying to infuse liquidity, particularly during the last week of the fiscal. The euro which gained by 100 basis points also might have marginally contributed through the revaluation effect," said the dealer.

The euro was at $1.2010 on March 27 and ended the week on March 31 at $1.2110.

According to the RBI release, gold reserves increased by $8 million to $5.75 billion.

The reserve position in the IMF also rose by $3 million to touch $756 million. However, SDRs remained unchanged at $3 million.

Dealers said that the rupee was likely to be in the range of 44.55-44.70 next week.

"While there are dollar inflows in the market, nationalised banks have been buying dollars on behalf of the central bank at 44.55-44.60.

So, the same trend might continue next week," said a dealer.