Is silver set to emerge from the shadow of gold as a precious metal? Although its price fell about 2% on Tuesday, it has been enjoying a bull run that makes this dip seem more like a pause for breath than the start of a correction. Longer trends underline this bullish sentiment.
It has almost doubled this year, outpacing gold’s 60%-odd rise. On 2 December, it was trading at ₹1,74,549 per kilogram, down from its record high of ₹1,78,620 the day earlier, and internationally at $56.97 per ounce after slipping from its $58.47 peak the previous session.
Unlike gold, silver is not just in demand as an investment vehicle and jewellery input, but also as an industrial material, given its use in a range of products from electronic goods and solar panels to electric vehicles. Its rally can be traced to a surge in industrial use running alongside a broader flight of capital into precious metals in response to global economic uncertainty.
This combination has been a dream for silver speculators.
As with gold, this raises risks for investors. How far the metal will go is anybody’s guess. Factory usage can be projected to rise in line with the final products they roll out. But no silver bullet exists to resolve uncertainty.