Silver prices down 2% as traders prefer to sit on cash

Silver futures dipped about 2 per cent in Tuesday’s trade as investors continued to sell assets to keep their money in cash because of heightened concerns over the economic toll of the coronavirus outbreak.

The futures have followed the trend in domestic spot markets in which prices have crumbled in the last few days.

MCX silver futures (May) were at Rs 35,605 per kg, down Rs 602 or 1.66 per cent.

In the Ahmedabad market, silver prices came down to Rs 35,726 on Monday from Rs 42,984 on Friday. That means a drop of 17 per cent.

In the international market, silver fell 1.5 per cent to $12.71, after touching its lowest since 2009 in the last session.

Meanwhile, spot gold fell 1.1 per cent to $1,496.78 per ounce by 0540 GMT, having slumped as much as 5.1 per cent on Monday to its lowest since November 2019. US gold futures gained 1.1 per cent to $1,503.20.

Holdings in the world’s largest gold-backed ETF, SPDR Gold Trust, fell 0.2 per cent to 929.84 tonnes on Monday.

Among other precious metals, palladium rose 2.1 per cent to $1,651.26 per ounce, having plummeted as much as 18 per cent in the previous session.

Platinum was steady at $663.09, having posted its biggest one-day percentage decline ever on Monday.