India Forex - Forex Trading in India

India Monday 8 March 2010 - The Foreign exchange of India fell to $375 million during the week that ended Feb 26th 2010 and went onto touch the $278.4 billion mark. The main reason citied for this was that the non dollar assets were revalued on account of the dip in the gold reserve value.

The latest report of data that was released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for both its foreign currency assets and also the gold value in its reserves had fallen to $212 million and also $136 million respectively. On the other hand the Special Drawing rights (SDR) which was also the reserve currency with the IMF had also risen by $26 million and $7 million respectively.

In the international market, the gold prices had also fallen mostly during the month of Feb where the gold reserve value that is revalued monthly depending on what it was at the London Bullion Exchange also fell. The impact that the variation gold prices was now very significant after the RBI had increased in its gold holding after it had followed the purchase of $200 tonnes of gold from the IMF in November last year.

The foreign currency assets that had dipped during the week was mainly because of the rising dollar value against the EUR. This was also the reason why the non dollar assets like the euro, yen and sterling etc were revalued since they were in the form of dollars and was mainly for the treasury official which was at the public sector bank.

India Saturday 6 March 2010 - India`s forex reserves decreased by USD 315 million to stand at USD 278,357 million as on Feb. 26, 2010, mainly on account of fall in foreign currency assets.

As per the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released on Mar. 05, 2010, foreign currency assets increased by USD 212 million to stand at USD 253,991 million.

During the same period, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased marginally USD 7 million to stand at USD 1,393 million.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) increased by USD 26 million to stand at USD 5,053 million. Gold reserves declined by USD 136 million to stand at USD 17,920 million.

Foreign currency assets expressed in USD include the effect of appreciation or depreciation on non-US currencies (such as Euro, Sterling and Yen) held in reserves.

India Saturday 20 February 2010 - Friday, the Reserve Bank of India said in a report that nation’s foreign exchange reserves stood at US$279.199 billion as on February 12, up from US$278.714 billion as on February 5.

At the same time, foreign currency assets reserves increased to US$254.696 billion from US$254.175 billion last week, while gold reserves remained stable at US$18.056 billion.

Meanwhile, nation’s reserve position with the International Monitory Fund amounted to US$1.393 billion, smaller than the 1.401 billion recorded in the preceding week.

India Saturday 13 February 2010 - India`s forex reserves decreased sharply by USD 2,241 million to stand at USD 278,714 million as on Feb. 05, 2009, mainly on account of heavy fall foreign currency assets.

As per the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released on Feb. 05, 2009, foreign currency assets decreased by USD 2,187 million to stand at USD 254,175 million.

During the same period, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decreased marginally USD 12 million to stand at USD 1,401 million.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) decreased by USD 42 million to stand at USD 5,082 million. Gold reserves remained steady at USD 18,056 million.

Foreign currency assets expressed in USD include the effect of appreciation or depreciation on non-US currencies (such as Euro, Sterling and Yen) held in reserves.

India Saturday 6 February 2010 - India`s forex reserves decreased further by USD 1,983 million to stand at USD 280,955 million as on Jan. 29, 2009, mainly on account of heavy fall foreign currency assets.

As per the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released on Feb. 05, 2009, foreign currency assets decreased by USD 1,718 million to stand at USD 256,362 million.

During the same period, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decreased marginally USD 6 million to stand at USD 1,413 million.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) decreased by USD 23 million to stand at USD 5,124 million. Gold reserves declined by USD 236 million to stand at USD 18,056 million.

Foreign currency assets expressed in USD include the effect of appreciation or depreciation on non-US currencies (such as Euro, Sterling and Yen) held in reserves.

India Monday 1 February 2010 - India’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $ 2.223 billion to$ 282.938 billion in the week ended January 22 as compared to the level of $ 285.161 billion in the previous week.

Foreign currency assets came down during the week by $ 2.179 billion to $ 258.080 billion from $ 260.259 billion in the previous week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its weekly bulletin.

According to it, the foreign currency assets expressed in US $ terms include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies (such as euro, sterling and yen) held in reserves.

Gold reserves during the week remained at the previous week’s level of $ 18.292 billion, the bulletin said.

Special drawing rights (SDR) declined by $ 34 million to $ 5.147 billion as compared to $ 5.181 billion in the previous week.

The country’s reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) went down by $ 10 million to $ 1.419 billion during the week, the bulletin added.

India Saturday 30 January 2010 - India’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $ 2.223 billion to$ 282.938 billion in the week ended January 22 as compared to the level of $ 285.161 billion in the previous week.
Foreign currency assets came down during the week by $ 2.179 billion to $ 258.080 billion from $ 260.259 billion in the previous week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its weekly bulletin.
According to it, the foreign currency assets expressed in US $ terms include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies (such as euro, sterling and yen) held in reserves.

Gold reserves during the week remained at the previous week’s level of $ 18.292 billion, the bulletin said.
Special drawing rights (SDR) declined by $ 34 million to $ 5.147 billion as compared to $ 5.181 billion in the previous week.

The country’s reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) went down by $ 10 million to $ 1.419 billion during the week, the bulletin added.

India Wednesday 20 January 2010 - The global financial turmoil and the fall in interest rates seem to have hit the return on India’s foreign exchange reserves. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) estimates, the rate of earnings on $264 billion worth foreign currency assets and gold, after accounting for depreciation, fell from 4.82 per cent in the July 2007-June 2008 period to 4.16 per cent in the July 2008-June 2009 period. This means a fall in interest income of at least $1.75 billion during the period — when global central banks announced stimulus measures and flooded the market with liquidity.

The RBI also admitted that valuation gain on account of the fall in the value of the US dollar against major currencies contributed maximum to the forex reserves. The valuation gain of $19.7 billion contributed as much as 67 per cent of the increase in the forex reserves during the period. Interest rates in many countries — like the US, the UK, Eurozone, and Japan — had plunged in the last one year. Yields of 10-year US Treasury securities dipped below 2.2 per cent. In India, the deployment of forex reserves is handled by the RBI directly. On the other hand, China which has a forex kitty of $2,400 billion has floated a separate company to manage its forex reserves. With a registered capital of $200 billion, China Investment Co Ltd, decides the investment avenues to get better returns. Though there were moves to float a sovereign wealth fund and another proposal to utilise forex reserves for infrastructure development, they remained only on paper.

“The foreign currency assets are invested in multi-currency, multi-asset portfolios as per the existing norms which are similar to the best international practices followed in this regard,” the RBI said in its latest half-yearly report on forex reserves. As at end-September 2009, out of the total foreign currency assets of $264.4 billion, $148.0 billion was invested in securities, $111.3 billion was deposited with other central banks, BIS and the IMF and $5.1 billion was in the form of deposits with foreign commercial banks and funds placed with the External Asset Managers (EAMs).

On balance of payments basis (that is, excluding valuation effects), the foreign exchange reserves increased by $9,533 million during April-September 2009 as against a decline of $2,499 million during April-September 2008. The valuation gain, reflecting the depreciation of the US dollar against the major currencies, accounted for $19.76 billion (67.5 per cent of the total increase in foreign exchange reserves) during April-September 2009 as compared with a valuation loss of $20,88 billion during April-September 2008. Besides the valuation gain, inflows under foreign investments and non-resident Indian deposits and SDR allocations by the IMF have contributed to the increase in foreign exchange reserves during April-September 2009, the RBI said.

India Saturday 16 January 2010 - India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $741 million to $284.262 billion in the week ended January 8 on the back of increase in foreign currency assets.

In the previous week ended January 1, forex reserves had nudged up marginally by $22 million. Since March-end 2009, India’s forex reserves have surged by $32.277 billion.

A break-up of the total forex reserves shows that in the reporting week, foreign currency assets surged by $772 million even as special drawing rights and India’s reserve position in the IMF declined by $24 million and $7 million respectively.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies.

As on January 8, India’s foreign currency assets and gold reserves stood at $259.406 billion and $18.292 billion respectively. Special drawing rights and India’s reserve position in the IMF stood at $5.145 billion and $1.419 billion respectively.

India Saturday 09 January 2010 - India’s foreign exchange reserves rose $22 million to $283.52 million during the week ended January 1, mainly due to the revaluation of gold.
According to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), foreign currency assets declined $85 million to $258.63 billion. Gold under the reserves went up by $110 million to $18.29 billion, while special drawing rights dropped $3 million to $5.17 billion.