Silver tops $100/oz on Shanghai Futures Exchange, soars to record high in Mumbai spot market
Silver futures have topped $100 an ounce on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), even as the white precious metal closed at a record high of ₹2,81,890 a kg in the Mumbai spot market.
On SHFE, silver March futures closed at 22,539 yuan a kg ($100.63 an ounce) after rising to a record high of 23,710 yuan ($105.87) on Thursday.
In the global market, silver ruled at $90.82 an ounce at 1730 hours IST, while March futures on COMEX were quoted at $90.65 an ounce. In the Mumbai spot market, silver opened at a record high of ₹2,82,720. On MCX, March silver futures ruled at ₹2,90,610 a kg.
Why premium
Silver is quoting at a $10 premium on SHFE due to soaring domestic demand for the white precious metal in China from industries such as solar, electric vehicles and electronics, besides investment demand. Also, low inventories in China have compounded global supply shortage.
According to analysts, available physical silver stocks are being hoarded and accumulated by various countries and their agencies.
In the global market, silver has witnessed volatility with prices topping $93 an ounce and dropping to $86, before trading around $90 over the past two sessions.
Silver, which has seen gathering momentum in prices over the past three months, is facing a structural deficit since 2018 and it will likely continue this year too. One of the reasons is investments in mines have been slack, leading to the market depending on the white precious metal being available as a byproduct of copper, zinc or lead mining.
Gold-silver ration
Besides, use of silver for solar, electronics, electric vehicles and data centres has soared over the past decade by 50 per cent, while in the case of photovoltaics, it has more than doubled.
Meanwhile, the gold silver ratio has halved to 50:1 from 100:1 a year ago. This means, an ounce of gold can get only 50 ounces of silver now compared with 100 ounces a year ago.
Analysts say silver soars when the ratio shrinks below 50:1 and the white precious metal would soon top $100 in New York and London, too.
Published on January 16, 2026
