Silver prices rose to Rs 60,200 per kg on October 1 as participants increased their long positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had declined 3.9 percent yesterday on COMEX.
Silver traded higher on improving outlook for industrial demand amid upbeat US and Chinese economic data.
Silver holdings in iShares ETF fell by 46.3 tonnes to 17,079.43 tonnes.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin both expressed hope for a breakthrough on additional stimulus aid, as the House stood poised to vote on a $2.2 trillion coronavirus bill unveiled by Democrats.
Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, said, “International silver spot and futures were firm this Thursday afternoon in Asian trade, tracking a weak US dollar and a recovery of industrial demand from China.”
Technically, LBMA Silver Spot has halted near $24.00/oz levels indicating sideways momentum in the range of $22-$25 levels, he said.
MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index slides 11.39 points, or 0.07 percent, at 15,335.94 at 14:45. 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 60,797 and a low of Rs 59,866 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 rose Rs 281, or 0.47 percent to Rs 60,200 per kg at 14:46 hours with a business turnover of 15,924 lots. The same for the March contract gained Rs 236, or 0.38 percent, to Rs 61,975 per kg with a turnover of 710 lots.
The value of December and March contracts traded so far is Rs 1,335.53 crore and Rs 8.02 crore, respectively.
The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 80.17 to 1, which means the amount of silver required to buy one ounce of gold.
Domestic silver futures on MCX gave up all gains made initially and was trading weak this Thursday afternoon, tracking the strength of the Indian rupee. Technically, MCX Silver December took resistance near Rs 61,700 levels where it could see some exhaustion at these levels indicating some sideways momentum in the counter where it could trade in a range of Rs 59,100-61,500 levels.
Anuj Gupta- DVP- Commodities and Currencies Research, Angel Broking Ltd, said, “As for today traders can go for in Silver at Rs 60,000 levels, with the stop loss of Rs 59,200 levels and for the target of Rs 61,500 levels.
At 09:20 (GMT), the precious metal was up 1.07 percent quoting at $23.74 an ounce in New York.