Silver prices plunged to Rs 61,536 per kg on October 26 as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had risen 0.57 percent last week on the MCX.

Silver prices trade lower tracking weakness in gold prices, firm dollar and impasse over US stimulus. The US dollar index trades higher at 93.03 levels up 0.29 percent. Silver holdings in iShares ETF were unchanged for the third day at 17,455.09 tonnes.

Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, said, “International silver prices were trading in the red this Monday afternoon in Asian trade tracking weak gold and firm US dollar.”

“Technically, LBMA Silver Spot is trading near $24.20 levels, where it is trading on negative note further can see downside $23.50-$23.00 levels. Resistance holds at $25.07-$25.27 levels,” Iyer said.

Domestic silver futures on MCX tracked international prices and was trading down on Thursday.

MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index was down 69.81 points, or 0.45 percent, at 15,542.71 at 14:53. 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 61,892 and a low of Rs 61,251 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 886, or 1.42 percent to Rs 61,536 per kg at 14:53 hours with a business turnover of 15,903 lots. The same for the March contract edged lower by Rs 827, or 1.29 percent, to Rs 63,350 per kg with a turnover of 1,151 lots.

The value of December and March contracts traded so far is Rs 1,344.13 crore and Rs 22.63 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 78.56 to 1 indicating that gold has outperformed silver.

Technically, MCX Silver December below Rs 61,600 could see a downside pressure up to Rs 60,500 levels where it holds support of 100-DMA. It could trade in the range of Rs 60,500-62,900 levels, said Iyer.