India's foreign exchange reserves rose for the eight week in a row to within striking distance of a record struck this year, boosted by a weaker dollar and foreign investments in a $1.2 billion share sale, analysts said.
They said reserves in Asia's fourth-largest economy rose in dollar terms after the US currency weakened on concerns over the US economy and comments from European Central Bank and Federal Reserve officials.
Central bank data released on Saturday showed India's reserves rose nearly $1 billion in the week ended October 22 to $120.62 billion, not far from a record of $121.1 billion struck on July 16.
The Reserve Bank of India said it expressed its foreign currency assets in US dollar terms after accounting for the appreciation or depreciation of other currencies in its reserves, such as the euro, pound and yen.
"A large chunk of the increase would be on account of revaluation gains," said Siddharth Mathur, strategist at JP Morgan in Bombay.
The dollar struck an eight-month low against the euro on October 22.
Traders said reserves were also boosted by foreign investors bringing in money for a $1.2 billion dollar initial public offering (IPO) of shares by state-run National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC), India's biggest power producer.
The IPO was oversubscribed about 11 times, with foreign funds reported to have made heavy bids. India's reserves are the fourth largest in Asia and are up $17.5 billion since January.
This month, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Monte Singh Ahluwalia said the reserves were more than the country needed and that policy-makers were examining ways to use the reserves to finance local infrastructure projects.
At current levels, reserves are enough to cover about one and a half years of India's imports.
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