India's foreign exchange reserves fall to $737.8bn at end-September, led by gold

Gold accounted for most of the September fall in reserves

Foreign exchange reserves are the foreign currency, gold and other assets a central bank holds. They give it the means to support the national currency and pay for imports.

• Total reserves fell to $737.8 billion at end-September, down from $751.8 billion in August.
• Gold holdings fell to $106.1 billion from $116.3 billion.
• Foreign currency assets, the largest part of reserves, slipped to $608.3 billion from $611.8 billion.

The rupee has given back part of its October gains

The daily reference rate shows how many rupees one US dollar buys. A lower number means a stronger rupee.

• The rupee stood at 95.23 per dollar on 28 October.
• That is stronger than 96.77 on 8 October, before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced measures to support the currency.
• It is weaker than 94.70 on 22 October, its strongest level since those measures.

Other money and stock market data showed nothing unusual

• The Sensex, a share index of large companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, closed at 73,124 on 23 October. It had closed at 74,729 on 16 October.
• The overnight Mumbai Interbank Offer Rate (MIBOR) was 5.46% on 19 October. This is the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans.
• The RBI bought no government bonds through open market operations in the latest two weeks. These are purchases of bonds from the market, used to manage how much cash is in the banking system.