The Hindu Business Line : Forex reserves increase by $952 m

Foreign exchange reserves have increased by $952 million for the week ended June 30, due to a rise in foreign currency assets. In the previous week, reserves had declined in excess of $1 billion.

According to the Reserve Bank of India's Weekly Statistical Supplement, the reserves have increased to $162.912 billion, against $161.96 billion in the previous week.

The foreign currency assets for the week have shown a rise of $1.791 billion to touch $155.968 billion. Foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of currencies such as euro, sterling and yen.

According to dealers, the dollar had weakened against all the major currencies, especially euro and pound, for the week under consideration. `There was revaluation of currencies following the interest rate hike in the Federal Open Market Committee meet. Dollar also weakened over the speculations about no further interest rate hike by the US,' said a chief dealer at a private bank.

The euro was trading within the range of $1.2524 to $1.2713. FII outflows during the week in question were around $77.3 million. "The Reserve Bank of India seems to have not interfered in the market," he said.

Gold reserves declined by $830 million and stood at $6.180 billion. The reserve position in the IMF declined by $9 million to $764 million.

Dealers said that the rupee is likely to trade between 45.90 and 46.20, in the next week.