Silver futures fall 0.32% to Rs 62,871 per kg on firm dollar

Silver prices dropped to Rs 62,871 per kg on October 13 as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had gained 0.6 percent on October 12 on the COMEX.

Silver prices traded lower as gold struggled for direction amid continuing uncertainty about US stimulus and a firm dollar.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF were unchanged at 17,382.74 tonnes.

“International silver spot prices were weak this Tuesday afternoon in Asian trade as the dollar rebounded. Markets also took cues from weak base metals which, surprisingly, are trading weak in Asian trade despite upbeat data from China this morning,” Sriram Iyer, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities, said.

Technically, LBMA Silver Spot holds support near 21-Daily Moving Average which is placed at $24.50 levels from where a bounce back move can be expected up to $25.55-$26.10. However, a breakdown below $24.20 can expect downside momentum up to $23.50-$22.00 levels.

Domestic silver futures on the MCX tracked international prices and was trading weak this Tuesday afternoon trade.

MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index was down 32.93 points, or 0.21 percent, at 15,680.33 at 15:04. The index tracks the real-time performance of the MCX Gold and the MCX Silver futures.

In the futures market, silver for December delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 62,924 and a low of Rs 62,126 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 fell Rs 227, or 0.36 percent, to Rs 62,871 per kg at 15:05 hours with a business turnover of 16,512 lots. The same for the March contract slipped Rs 501, or 0.77 percent, to Rs 64,740 per kg with a turnover of 889 lots.

The value of December and March’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,316.38 crore and Rs 31.17 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 76.80 to 1 indicating that gold has outperformed silver.

Technically, MCX Silver December will hold the support of 21-Daily Moving Average which is placed at Rs 62,400 levels below which could see some sideways to marginal downside momentum up to Rs 61,400 levels and resistance is at Rs 63,070-64,200 levels, said Iyer.

At 09:38 (GMT), the precious metal was down 0.46 percent, quoting at $25.15 an ounce in New York.