India's foreign exchange reserves rose to an all-time high of $363.12 billion in the week ended April 29. The reserves rose $1.52 billion from the previous reporting week, according to the weekly statistical supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.
The increase was mainly due to $1.49 billion increase in foreign currency assets (FCAs) to $339 billion during the reporting week. FCAs form a significant portion of India's foreign exchange reserves.
Gold reserves remained unchanged at $20.11 billion, according to the weekly supplement.
In the previous reporting week ended April 22, reserves had increased $1.35 billion to $361.6 billion on the back of $1.35 billion in FCAs to $337.53 billion.
In addition to FCAs and gold, India also reserves in the form of special drawing rights and reserve position in the International Monetary Fund.
The spike in foreign exchange reserves was largely on account of foreign institutional investors (FIIs/FPIs) being net buyers of Indian equities during the reporting week. They bought equities worth $352.48 million on a net basis, according to data available with the National Securities Depository Limited. In the debt market also, FIIs were net buyers for two days during the reporting week.
The rupee also remained fairly strong during the week and closed at 66.52 to the U.S. dollar on April 29.
The Sensex remained range-bound during the week and closed at 25,606 on April 29, down from 25,678 at the beginning of the week.
