Silver futures slide 3.37% to Rs 59,150 per kg, down over 14% in last five sessions

Silver prices continued its downward spiral to Rs 59,150 per kg on September 23 as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had declined over 14 percent in the last five sessions on the MCX.

Silver prices traded lower due to a stronger US dollar and global growth concerns.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told the House Financial Services Committee that the US economy has a long way to go before fully recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and will need further support.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF rose by 66.6 tonnes to 17,277.71 tonnes.

MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index fell 207.28 points, or 1.34 percent, to 15,236.42 at 14:54. The index tracks the real-time performance of MCX Gold and MCX Silver futures.

In the futures market, silver for December delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 60,487 and a low of Rs 58,037 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 2,063, or 3.37 percent, to Rs 59,150 per kg at 14:56 hours with a business turnover of 15,943 lots. The same for the March contract fell Rs 2,368, or 3.74 percent, to Rs 61,000 per kg with a turnover of 639 lots.

The value of December and March’s contracts traded so far is Rs 3,083.69 crore and Rs 107.83 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 79.88 to 1, which means the amount of silver required to buy one ounce of gold.

Silver along with gold may witness choppy trade unless there are fresh triggers. However, we expect to see buying interest to emerge at lower levels amid pick up in investor buying and hopes of further improvement in the manufacturing sector, said Kotak Securities.

At 09:35 (GMT), the precious metal was down 3.05 percent quoting at $23.77 an ounce in New York.