News: Indian Central Bank bought $504 m in May

(BL 31/07/2006) Mumbai - Country’s central bank said it had bought $504 million from the foreign exchange market in May, its fourth straight month of purchases, data released in its monthly bulletin at the weekend showed.

The dollar purchases came despite a sharp sell-off in the stock market during the month when foreign investors pared their investments in India amid growing risk aversion towards emerging market assets.

The central bank bought $4.31 billion in April as it had stepped in to rein in rupee appreciation and maintain country's export competitiveness.

It bought a net $8.14 billion in the financial year to March 2006, lower than $20.85 billion in the same period a year earlier.