India's forex hit record high

India's forex hit record high

BOMBAY (Reuters): India's foreign exchange reserves rose to a record high in dollar terms by mid-month, the central bank reported, reflecting a huge inflow of foreign money into buy Indian stocks.

By the close of trading last week, foreign investors had brought over nine times as much money into India as they had a year ago, according to analysts.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said foreign exchange reserves totaled US$40.469 billion on Jan. 19, up $116 million from a week earlier.

But in rupee terms reserves fell, reflecting the rupee's appreciation against the dollar. India's foreign exchange reserves totaled 1,878.79 billion rupees, down 2.44 billion rupees from a week earlier.

The rupee, at its highest, gained 0.7 percent in January to 46.34 per dollar, up nearly 1.2 percent from the record low of 46.92 rupees struck in October. But it subsequently weakened on month-end import demand.