India's Forex Reserves Up After Three Weeks Of Decline

India's foreign exchange broke a three-week-long declining streak to rise to $698.19 billion for the week ended July 25, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India on Friday.

The country's forex kitty rose $2.7 billion over the previous reporting week. In the week before that, the reserves had dropped by $1.18 billion to $695.49 billion.

The RBI's forex holdings had steadily recovered in the first six months of this calendar year. But the numbers had been declining for much of July.

Amid global trade tensions and uncertainty, RBI's holding of forex had fallen for three weeks straight but has now begun to rebound slightly.

The Indian rupee closed slightly higher on Friday after opening flat at the beginning of the trading session. The local currency ended 1.16% weaker for the week, the fourth consecutive weekly loss.

The rupee closed 6 paise stronger at 87.54 against US dollar versus its Thursday closing at 87.6 a dollar.

The domestic currency traded in the range of 87.35 to 88 throughout the day.

Foreign investors have pulled out $8.85 billion from the country's debt and equity markets so far this year, according to data from the National Securities Depository Ltd.

For the week ended July 25, foreign currency assets—a major component of the reserves— rose $1.3 billion to $588.92 billion, according to the RBI data. In dollar terms, foreign currency assets include the effect of the appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in foreign exchange reserves.

Gold reserves increased by $1.2 billion to $85.70 billion during the week.