RBI net sold $179 mln in spot in Dec, intervened in futures - bulletin

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sold a net $179 million in spot exchange markets in December compared with net buying of $15 million in November, while also intervening in the futures markets, it said in a monthly bulletin on Wednesday.

In spot markets, the RBI bought $2.6 billion but sold $2.8 billion in December, showing the central bank intervened both to curb the rupee's value and to cap its gains.

The RBI did not provide a breakdown of sales or purchases for currency futures in December, only saying that its actions had totalled $1.22 billion worth of trades.

Traders however said the central bank was likely more active selling dollar/rupee futures to prevent a sharp fall in the rupee.

The trading in futures was less than the $2.37 billion in November, according to the RBI table. The RBI started detailing its activity in currency futures last month.

The rupee moved in the 66.0850-67.1250 per dollar range in December when the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the first time in a decade.

The central bank's outstanding forward purchases stood at $1.99 billion as of December-end compared to $1.49 billion in November, the data showed.

(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)