Silver futures slip 1.54% to Rs 69,800 per kg

Silver prices slipped to Rs 69,800 per kg on September 2 as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal gained 0.2 percent yesterday on the COMEX.

Silver prices were weighed down by strengthening of the dollar index, currently trading up 0.34 percent to 92.65.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF were unchanged at 17,855.07 tonnes.

In the futures market, silver for December delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 70,600 and a low of Rs 69,500 per kg on the MCX. So far in the current series, the precious metal has touched a low of Rs 49,415 and a high of Rs 79,723.

Silver delivery for December contract slipped Rs 1,090, or 1.54 percent, to Rs 69,800 per kg at 14:29 hours, with a business turnover of 15,757 lots. The same for the March contract declined Rs 1,062, or 1.45 percent, to Rs 72,172 per kg with a turnover of 104 lots.

The value of December and March’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,278.58 crore and Rs 10.17 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 70.46 to 1, which means the amount of silver required to buy one ounce of gold.

Silver may see choppy trade in the near term due to mixed factors, however, buying is expected to emerge at lower levels amid signs of improving industrial demand, said Kotak Securities.

At 09:03 (GMT), the precious metal was down 1.79 percent quoting at $28.13 an ounce in New York.