MUMBAI, - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sold net $384 million in the spot foreign exchange market in January, the central bank's monthly bulletin showed on Tuesday.

The RBI said it purchased $12.90 billion and sold $13.29 billion in the spot market in the month. In comparison, it bought net $3.84 billion in the spot market in December.

The Indian rupee appreciated by nearly 1% against the dollar in January and moved in a wide range of 80.88 to 82.94.

The central bank intervenes in the spot and forwards market to curb exchange rate volatility. The currency was at 82.6550 to the dollar on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the RBI's net outstanding forward purchase stood at $21.73 billion as of end-January, compared with a net purchase of $10.97 billion at the end of the previous month, the data showed.

(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)