Silver futures slump 1.21% to Rs 68,154 per kg

Silver prices slumped to Rs 68,154 per kg on September 11 as participants increased their short positions. The precious metal settled with a gain of 0.77 percent on the COMEX on September 10.

Silver has been trading lower tracking weakness in gold prices.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF remained unchanged at 17,373.25 tonne.

In the futures market, silver for December delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 68,500 and a low of Rs 67,613 per kg on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (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 futures for December delivery slipped Rs 837, or 1.21 percent, to Rs 68,154 per kg at 14:21 hours on a business turnover of 16,214 lots. The same for March delivery edged lower by Rs 727, or 1.02 percent, to Rs 70,398 per kg on a turnover of 211 lots.

The value of December and March’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,140.05 crore and Rs 6.94 crore, respectively.

The spot gold-to-silver ratio currently stands at 72.50 to 1, which means the amount of silver required to buy one ounce of gold.

Silver will trade in a consolidative range with support at Rs 67,430-67,100 and resistance at Rs 68,900-69,350, said Motilal Oswal.

At 08:54 (GMT), the precious metal slipped 1.01 percent at $27.01 an ounce in New York.