Silver futures jump nearly 3% to Rs 69,925 per kg on safe haven demand

Silver

Silver prices climbed to Rs 69,925 per kg on December 21 as participants increased their long positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had surged 6.54 percent last week on the MCX.

The white metal price rose tracking firmness in gold, speedy distribution of the vaccine in many nations raised hopes of improvement in the global economic outlook thus improving demand for the industrial metal.

The US dollar index trades higher at 90.50 levels, up 0.62 percent in the afternoon trade.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF jumped by 101.19 tonnes to 17,338.99 tonnes.

Speculators raised their net long COMEX silver futures and options position by 521 contracts to 44,187 contracts in the week to December 15, according to CFTC data.

MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index surged 232.01 points, or up 1.48 percent, at 15,921.85 at 15:11. The index tracks the real-time performance of MCX Gold and MCX Silver futures.

Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities said, “International silver and domestic silver were solidly higher this Monday morning and early afternoon trade in Asia supported by safe haven appeal for the metal. Silver outperformed gold as the ratio continued to fall on December 21 morning and early afternoon trade in Asia. Currently, the ratio is at 70.23 and was last seen at this level in the month of September.”

“Technically, LBMA Silver Spot is trading above $27.00 after giving a breakout of horizontal trend line and is trading above 100-DMA where further could see $27.06-$26.99 levels. Support is at $25.40-$27.70 levels”, he said.

In the futures market, silver for March delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 71,650 and a low of Rs 68,958 per kg on the MCX. So far in the current series, the precious metal has touched a low of Rs 54,386 and a high of Rs 79,980.

Silver delivery for the March contract gained Rs 2,018, or 2.97 percent to Rs 69,925 per kg at 15:14 hours with a business turnover of 14,402 lots. The same for the May contract edged higher Rs 2,567, or 3.74 percent, to Rs 71,223 per kg with a turnover of 260 lots.

The value of March and May’s contracts traded so far is Rs 3,722.74 crore and Rs 36.85 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 71.17 to 1.

“Technically, MCX Silver March is trading above Rs 70,000 levels and has also given a breakout of Rising Channel formation. Above, Rs 68,000 levels will continue its bullish momentum up to Rs 71,400-73,000 levels. Support is at 68500-67300 levels,” Iyer said.

At 09:48 (GMT), the precious metal was up 2.14 percent quoting at $26.59 an ounce in New York.

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