Silver prices were lowered on August 16 as industrial metals remain under pressure on weak economic data from China and strength in the US dollar. The precious metal had fallen 2.71 percent last week on the MCX.

The white metal extended decline after a gap-down start in the afternoon session, tracking the weak global cues.

The semi-precious metal has been trading lower than 20, 50, 100 and 200 days’ moving averages but higher than the 5-day moving averages on the daily chart. The momentum indicator Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 32.63, which indicates further downside in the price.

NS Ramaswamy, Head of Commodities, Ventura Securities said, “As per our last week’s view, MCX SILVER prices traded with a negative bias. Prices recorded the low of Rs 61,536 for the week. Further, also prices are likely to trade with negative bias. Prices are likely to head below the Rs 60,000 level in coming sessions. Any rise in prices can be used as an opportunity to create a short position in the counter.

He advised his clients to sell MCX SILVER SEPTEMBER in the range of Rs 62,500-63,000 for the target of Rs 60,000-58,000 with a stop loss above Rs 64,500.

As per National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, China’s July Industrial production grew at 6.4 percent year-on-year in July against the expectation of 7.8 percent growth.

Silver holdings in iShares ETF were unchanged at 17,276.95 tonnes, after seeing an inflow of 63.4 tonnes a day earlier. The fund NAV is trading at a premium of 1.40 percent.

The US dollar index traded higher at 92.60, up 0.10 percent against the major cross in the afternoon session.

The spot gold/silver ratio currently stands at 75.44 to 1, indicating that gold has outperformed silver. The surge in the gold/silver ratio is a negative sign for the white metal.

MCX Bulldesk fell 33 points, or 0.23 percent, to 14,094 at 15:07. The index tracks the real-time performance of MCX Gold and MCX Silver futures.

In the futures market, silver for September delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 63,233 and a low of Rs 62,645 per kg on the MCX. So far in the current series, the precious metal has touched a low of Rs 61,536 and a high of Rs 75,215.

Silver delivery for the September contract decreased Rs 507, or 0.80 percent to Rs 62,731 per kg at 15:08 hours with a business turnover of 10,673 lots. The same for the December contract tumbled Rs 537, or 0.84 percent, to Rs 63,428 per kg with a turnover of 4,447 lots.

The value of September and December’s contracts traded so far is Rs 483.79 crore and Rs 67.54 crore, respectively.

Similarly, the Silver Mini contract for August slipped Rs 492, or 0.77 percent at Rs 63,030 on a business turnover of 21,678 lots.

Kshitij Purohit, Product Manager, Currency & Commodities, CapitalVia Global Research Limited, “MCX Silver has formed a Descending broadening wedge pattern in hourly chart and price remained within channel over the week with few corrections.”

At 0942 (GMT), the precious metal edged lower 1.27 percent and was quoting at $23.47 an ounce in New York.