Silver to beat gold in 2010
Thursday, 1 July 2010
MUMBAI, June 30 (Commodity Online): Good monsoon, high gold prices and global trends may help silver outperform the yellow metal in India.
Indians love to possess silver in their homes and after gold silver is the most sought after metal in Indian households for jewellery. Since gold prices are touching Rs 19,000 per 10 gm, many rural families are now switching to silver.
Being a voluminous importer and at times surprising the world like in 2008, Indian moves have a significant bearing on world silver prices.
In the years since 2003, India's silver imports have seen some major fluctuations. If the high point was reached in 2008 when imports totalled 160 million ounces, the next year saw imports dipping to 40 million ounces.
The mainstay of the Indian silver market continues to be the industrial and jewellery and silverware sectors. A significant portion of jewellery and silverware demand emanates in rural and semi-urban areas.
In recent years, however, this country too has started discovering the virtues of precious metal in silver as the steady rise in investment buying of bars and coins will confirm. More and more people here are using silver as a speculative commodity play as many others are looking at it as a safe haven asset.
GFMS, the world's leading precious metals consultancy, says in its Silver Survey 2010, though the global jewellery demand in 2009 once again saw marginal erosion to 156.6 million ounces, buying improved both in India and China.
Last year, the high prices of gold pushed some consumers towards silver and precious gems. As a result, the decline in global demand for jewellery was arrested to 1.1 per cent.
GFMS says that mainly on account of India, jewellery demand will take a marginal knock this year when silverware will also meet with less demand more as a result of secular shift.
Indians love to possess silver in their homes and after gold silver is the most sought after metal in Indian households for jewellery. Since gold prices are touching Rs 19,000 per 10 gm, many rural families are now switching to silver.
Being a voluminous importer and at times surprising the world like in 2008, Indian moves have a significant bearing on world silver prices.
In the years since 2003, India's silver imports have seen some major fluctuations. If the high point was reached in 2008 when imports totalled 160 million ounces, the next year saw imports dipping to 40 million ounces.
The mainstay of the Indian silver market continues to be the industrial and jewellery and silverware sectors. A significant portion of jewellery and silverware demand emanates in rural and semi-urban areas.
In recent years, however, this country too has started discovering the virtues of precious metal in silver as the steady rise in investment buying of bars and coins will confirm. More and more people here are using silver as a speculative commodity play as many others are looking at it as a safe haven asset.
GFMS, the world's leading precious metals consultancy, says in its Silver Survey 2010, though the global jewellery demand in 2009 once again saw marginal erosion to 156.6 million ounces, buying improved both in India and China.
Last year, the high prices of gold pushed some consumers towards silver and precious gems. As a result, the decline in global demand for jewellery was arrested to 1.1 per cent.
GFMS says that mainly on account of India, jewellery demand will take a marginal knock this year when silverware will also meet with less demand more as a result of secular shift.