India's forex reserves increase, snapping four-week losing streak

India's foreign exchange reserves rose for the first time in five weeks and stood at $562.40 billion as of the week ended March 3, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) statistical supplement showed on Friday.
 

The reserves increased by $1.46 billion at the end of last week after falling by a total of $15.8 billion in the previous four weeks, the data showed.
 

The reserves stood at $560.94 billion in the week to Feb 24.
 

The central bank intervenes in the spot and forwards market to prevent runaway moves in the rupee's exchange rate against the dollar. The RBI has said in the past that changes in reserves also stem from valuation gains or losses.
 

Last week, the rupee gained 0.9% against the dollar, logging its biggest weekly rise in nearly two months, and strengthened beyond 82 for the first time in a month.
 

It traded in a range of 81.92 to 82.95 that week.
 

For the current week, the rupee ended little changed at 82.04 on Friday.