MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India sold a net $19.05 billion in the spot foreign exchange market in July, it said in its monthly bulletin released on Friday.

The central bank said it had bought $19.72 billion and sold $38.77 billion in the spot market.

The rupee moved in a wide range of 78.86 to 80.0650 against the U.S. dollar in July.

The currency hit a life-time low of 80.12 on Aug. 29, but the central bank’s dollar-selling intervention has ensured that it has never closed trading on the weaker side of 80 so far, despite having fallen past that level on multiple occasions.

The RBI said its net forward dollar holdings as of end-July stood at $22.02 billion, compared with $30.86 billion as of end-June.