India's foreign exchange reserves surged by $5.27 billion to $317.500 billion in the week ended October 14, according to Reserve Bank of India's ‘Weekly Statistical Supplement'.

This is the second week in a row that foreign exchange reserves have seen an increase. In the previous week ended October 7, foreign exchange reserves rose by $749 million to $312.231 billion.

A major contributor to the rise in forex reserves was the $5.191 billion increase in the country's foreign currency assets to $281.653 billion.

Foreign currency assets expressed in dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, sterling and yen held in reserves.

In the week under consideration, the euro strengthened against the dollar from $1.3642 on Monday to $1.3882 on Friday.

India's reserve position at the International Monetary Fund in the week under review rose by $29 million to $2.636 billion. SDRs also rose by $49 million to $4.544 billion, while gold reserves remain unchanged at $28.667 billion.

The rupee fell past the 50 per dollar level for the first time in 30 months, breaching a key psychological level of 50 a dollar on speculation of slowing economic growth and faster inflation will deter foreign investment.

The rupee may strengthen marginally against the dollar on Monday as appetite for high-yielding currencies is expected to improve if the meeting of the European Union on Sunday yields a concrete solution to tackle the region's debt problems.

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