India's foreign exchange reserves rose for the third consecutive week due to easing pressure on the rupee after comments from US Federal Reserve Chair about slower rate hikes and a fall in crude oil prices.

During the week ending November 25, the forex reserve rose $2.89 billion to $550.14 billion, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The uptick in the foreign exchange reserves is a result of the rise in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), which is a major component of the overall reserves. The FCA rose $3.00 billion to $487.29 billion for the week ending November 25.

However, gold reserves fell $73 million to $39.94 billion.

During the week ending November 18, the forex reserve rose $2.54 billion to $547.25 billion, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The rise in the last three in foreign exchange reserves has been witnessed after the central bank has been digging into its reserves for the past few months to protect the rupee from depreciating sharply due to global cues.

On December 2, the rupee fell marginally to close at 81.32 against the US dollar as oil companies were the buyers and all others including FPIs sellers as the dollar continues to languish lower crossing 104.65 its first major support.

"Rupee moved in a small range of 81.08 to 81.25 as oil companies were the buyers and all others including FPIs sellers as the dollar continues to languish lower crossing 104.65 its first major support. Eur and GBP continued to make merry on the falling dollar and were up about 0.15%. The non-farm payroll data from the US was due this evening and is expected to come at 200k as against 261k last month indicating a softening economy," said Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP.

(Source:Money Control)