News: Indian forex reserves up $ 940 m

(BL 30/09/2006) Mumbai - Forex reserves increased by $ 940 million to touch $ 166.482 billion for the week ended September 22, according to the Reserve Bank of India's Weekly Statistical Supplement. In the earlier week, reserves stood at $ 165.542 billion.

The week saw good dollar inflows into the domestic bourses, explaining the rise in reserves, said the head of treasury at a private sector bank.

According to RBI data, foreign currency assets increased by $ 936 million to touch $ 159.175 billion during the week. Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollars include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies (such as euro, sterling, yen) held in reserves.

FII inflows into equities came to $ 311.3 million. Gold reserves and SDRs were unchanged at $ 6.538 billion and $ 1 million respectively.

The reserves with the IMF moved up by $ 4 million to $ 768 million.