Silver futures fall 1.49% to Rs 58,150 per kg in afternoon trade

Silver prices slumped to Rs 58,150 per kg on September 28 as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had lost 3.73 percent last week on the MCX.

The US Federal Reserve's projections of a paced recovery in the coming months and the home sales in August rising to their highest levels in 14 years underpinned the US dollar. Moreover, an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases in Europe and Britain pushed the greenback higher against the basket of currencies, denting the appeal for the dollar-denominated gold and silver.

The dollar is also trading lower 0.22 percent to 94.47 on lack of big moves ahead of the US presidential debate on Tuesday and the release of US economic data later in the week.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF rose 57.89 tonnes to 17,014.31 tonnes.

Meanwhile, reflecting current investor sentiments, hedge funds and money managers reduced their bullish positions in COMEX silver contracts by 3,705 contracts to 35,583 for the week to September 22.

The MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index slipped 135.91 points, or 0.90 percent, at 14,998.38 at 14:20. 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 58,755 and a low of Rs 57,652 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 877, or 1.49 percent, to Rs 58,150 per kg at 14:21 hours with a business turnover of 15,804 lots. The same for the March contract declined Rs 687, or 1.13 percent, to Rs 60,028 per kg with a turnover of 687 lots.

The value of December and March’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,470.21 crore and Rs 4.31 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 81.71 to 1, which means the amount of silver required to buy one ounce of gold.

Anuj Gupta- DVP - Commodities and Currencies Research, Angel Broking, said, “As for today traders can also go for buy in silver at Rs 58,200 levels, with the stop loss of Rs 57,400 levels and for the target of Rs 60,000 levels.

At 09:03 (GMT), the precious metal slipped 1.29 percent, quoting at $22.79 an ounce in New York.

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