Spot silver advanced on Wednesday in electronic trading, reaching $24.31 per ounce.
On the Comex in New York silver futures for July delivery closed the previous trading session 0.1% higher, adding 1.9 cents to trade at $24.19 per ounce. During the day prices hit a low of $24.02 per ounce and a high of $24.55 per ounce.
In April, silver recorded a third straight monthly loss. During the last month, the white metal fell 14.6% losing $4.14 of its price. In March the commodity edged down by 10.9 cents. The loss was $2.92 in February, while in January silver closed the month $1.12 higher.
Despite the third month of decline, the white metal ended well above its lowest settlement price of $22.96 per ounce from April 19. That was due the strong demand for physical silver grown around the globe.
Over the last month both gold and silver markets suffered heavy losses. Yet, after the early April market crash, investors came back to take advantage of the alluring prices. Mints and dealers around the world have reported robust demand for physical silver bullion.
There is a solid evidence from the US. The American Eagle silver coins bullion sales reached 4,087,000 in April. This is a 21.8% month on month jump and a 168.9% rebound on year over year basis. At the moment, silver coins sales sit at 18,310,000. This a peak level never recorded so early in a year. In 2012, the 18.3 million threshold wasn’t passed till the 16th July.
However, during the last month, a number of big money managers reduced their expectations for silver prices in 2013 and 2014.
Recently UBS revised it silver price forecast from $32.3 to $29.0 per ounce. The update came after the latest market developments. The 2014 white metal outlook was also trimmed from $31 to $30 per ounce.
HSBC also cut its 2013 silver price forecast. The bank reduced its expectations from $33 to $26 per ounce. For 2014 HSBC made a silver price projection update from $31 to $27 per ounce. Growing mine output was one the major factors which the bank saw as a negative driver.
- Read more here: HSBC cut 2013 silver price forecast on growing mine output
