Silver prices dropped to Rs 60,650 per kg on September 30 despite participants increasing their long positions, as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had gained 3.6 percent the previous day on the COMEX Index.

The US dollar index, measured against a basket of six currencies gained 0.28 percent to trade at 94.19, which is inversely related to the prices of precious metals.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF fell by 5.8 tonnes to 17,125.74 tonnes.

Sriram Iyer, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities said, “International silver spot and futures were weak this Wednesday, tracking a sell-off in gold and strong US dollar. Silver prices were also pressurised tracking weak sentiments in the base metals sector.”

On the charts, LBMA Silver Spot has halted near $24.00 levels indicating sideways momentum in the range of $22.00-$25.00 levels, he said.

MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index fell 202.50 points, or 1.30 percent, at 15,366.82 at 2:53 pm. 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 61,497 and a low of Rs 60,530 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 1,816, or 2.91 percent to Rs 60,650 per kg at 2:55 pm with a business turnover of 16,118 lots. The same for the March contract was down Rs 1,889, or 2.94 percent, to Rs 62,348 per kg with a turnover of 707 lots.

The value of December and March’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,726.40 crore and Rs 13.19 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 79.66 to 1, which is used to calculate the amount of silver required to buy one ounce of gold.

On the charts, MCX Silver December took resistance near Rs 62,000 levels where it seemed some exhaustion at these levels indicating some sideways momentum in the counter where it could trade in a range of Rs 59,500-62,500 levels, said Iyer.