Silver prices traded slightly higher at Rs 69,448 per kg on February 24 as participants trimmed positions as seen by the open interest. The precious metal had declined 1.4 percent on February 23 on the COMEX.

The white metal traded in the positive territory after a gap-up open in the afternoon session tracking dollar weakness.

Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell in his testimony before US Senate Banking Committee said that it will be some time before Fed considers changing policies it adopted to help the economy get back to full employment and he does not expect inflation to rise to troubling levels.

The precious metal has been trading higher than 5, 20, 50, 100 and 200 day- moving averages on the daily chart. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 53 which indicates positive momentum in prices.

Silver has been trading choppy as an improved outlook for industrial demands is countered by weaker investor interest.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF rose by 242.6 tonnes to 19,272.14 tonnes.

The US dollar index trades lower at 90.09 levels, down 0.08 percent in the afternoon trade.

MCX iCOMDEX Bullion Index eased 9.09 points, or 0.06 percent, at 14,918.20 at 15:17 pm. The index tracks the real-time performance of MCX Gold and MCX Silver futures.

Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities said, “Technically, LBMA spot silver’s pivotal point is at $27.95 and the trade above it could push prices to $28.30 while supports are at $27.30 and $26.95.”

“Domestic silver prices are trading lower in a choppy trading session this Wednesday morning and afternoon trade. Technically, MCX silver March contracts could trade in the trading band of Rs 68,850-Rs 70,260.”

In the futures market, silver for March delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 69,673 and a low of Rs 68,935 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 March contract gained Rs 107, or 0.15 percent to Rs 69,448 per kg at 15:20 hours with a business turnover of 9,463 lots. The same for the May contract jumped Rs 107, or 0.15 percent, to Rs 70,728 per kg with a turnover of 6,366 lots.

The value of March and May’s contracts traded so far is Rs 1,359.29 crore and Rs 520.01 crore, respectively.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 65.08 to 1 indicating that gold has outperformed silver.

Kshitij Purohit, Product Manager, Currency & Commodities, CapitalVia Global Research Limited said, “MCX Silver is trading at a crucial resistance level now and if it breaks Rs 66,500 this time, we will have a clear way of Rs 63,500- Rs 62,000. Silver has downside support at Rs 66,500- Rs 63,500 level whereas resistance is at Rs 71,600-Rs 74,600 levels.”

Silver trades higher and may see extended gains if gold can remain near the $1,800/oz level; however, a sharp rise is unlikely unless investor interest picks up, said Kotak Securities.

At 09:55 (GMT), the precious metal was up 0.40 percent quoting at $27.80 an ounce in New York.