MUMBAI, Nov 22 Reuters India39;s foreign exchange reserves logged their sharpest weekly fall on record to a morethanfourmonth low last week, as the dollar strengthened following the U.S. election verdict, and the central bank sold from its reserves to limit the rupee39;s decline.
The reserves fell by 17.8 billion in the week of Nov. 15 the most since available data starting 1998 to 657.89 billion, data from the Reserve Bank of India RBI showed on Friday.
Forex reserves have fallen by a total of nearly 30 billion in the last six weeks and are down by 47 billion from the record high of 704.89 billion hit in late September.
Changes in foreign currency assets are caused by the central bank39;s intervention in the forex market as well as the appreciation or depreciation of foreign assets held in the reserves.
The outcome of the U.S. elections boosted the dollar and U.S. bond yields, leading to revaluation losses.
Revaluation loss for the reporting week is estimated at 10.4 billion, while the RBI may have net sold dollars worth 7.2 billion in the week of Nov. 15, said Gaura Sen Gupta, India economist at IDFC FIRST Bank.
The rupee fell to its thenrecord low of 84.4125 last week against the dollar. The currency settled at 84.4450 on Friday, after hitting an alltime low of 84.5075 earlier in the session.
Persistent outflows from Indian equities have also kept the rupee under pressure. Foreign investors have net sold local stocks and bonds worth more than 4 billion in…