Silver futures trade firm at Rs 63,365 per kg on strong demand

Silver prices jumped to Rs 63,365 per kg on October 12 as participants increased their long positions, as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had gained 4.49 percent last week on the COMEX.

Silver prices trade firm, tracking gains in gold prices, rupee depreciation and the reopening of China’s market following a long holiday.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF fell 43.41 tonnes to 17,382.74 tonnes.

Sriram Iyer, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities said, "International silver spot prices were firm this Monday afternoon in Asian trade taking cues from base metals prices which are trading with small gains."

"Technically, LBMA Silver Spot has given a bullish breakout of its consolidation phase from many days where it has finally traded above $25.00, indicating for positive breath to continue up to $26.05-$27.04 levels. Support is at $24.70-$23.30 levels”, he said.

MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index was up 94.12 points, or 0.60 percent, at 15,726.53 at 15:46. 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 64,122 and a low of Rs 62,962 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 surged Rs 481, or 0.76 percent to Rs 63,365 per kg at 3:48 pm, with a business turnover of 16,472 lots. The same for the March contract gained Rs 540, or 0.83 percent, to Rs 65,267 per kg with a turnover of 854 lots.

The value of December and March’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,805.31 crore and Rs 41.57 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 76.59 to 1, indicating that gold has outperformed silver.

Domestic silver futures on MCX tracked international prices and was trading with solid gains this Monday afternoon trade. Technically, MCX Silver December continues to trade on a positive note where Rs 63,700-64,500 will hold resistance and Rs 62,300-61,900 is support, said Iyer.

Hareesh V of Geojit said, "Silver has an intraday bias and is likely to be on the positive side as it convincingly stays above $24.50/oz." Immediate support is seen at $27.40 followed by $28.50.

At 10:22 am GMT, the precious metal was up 0.63 percent quoting at $25.26 an ounce in New York.