Indian investors flocking to Silver

There’s a silver rush in India.

Indians are known for stockpiling gold, but they are increasingly turning to silver as the price has pushed to 14-year highs.

In rupee terms, silver set a record of ₹114,875 per kilogram (around $41/ounce). A silver production shortfall in India has sent the price to a significant premium locally.

In 2024, gold was king, with the price soaring 34 percent in rupee terms as silver charted a 23 percent gain. The script has flipped in recent months, with the local silver price up 21 percent over the last three months. That compares to a 5 percent rise in the gold price through the same period.

Unsurprisingly, Indian investors are hoping to cash in on silver’s bullish run.

Silver has traditionally been the choice for poor, budget-conscious rural consumers, but it has increasingly grabbed the attention of urban investors.

Umesh Agarwal told Reuters he frequently buys gold coins, but he recently purchased his first 1-kilo silver bar.

"Gold's done pretty well for me over the last couple of years. Now I'm hoping silver follows the same path and gives similar returns."

Chirag Thakkar heads up one of India's largest silver importers. He says investor behavior has been different during this recent bull rally.

"Usually, investors cash in when prices hit record highs, offloading coins and bars or pulling out of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). However, this time, even at record highs, people are investing, rather than selling."

Silver ETFs reported inflows of ₹39.25 billion in Q2. That compares to ₹23.67 billion flowing into gold ETFs. June inflows set a record at ₹20.04 billion.

According to the Silver Institute, retail demand for silver in India rose 7 percent through H1 2025.

Meanwhile, silver imports exploded by 431 percent year-over-year through the first five months of 2025, totaling 544.1 tonnes.

Indian interest in silver isn’t new. It’s just being revived by record prices. Over the last decade, investors have accumulated over 17,500 tons of silver in the form of coins and bars. The country ranks as the world’s largest consumer of silver jewelry and silverware.

Even with the recent rally in silver, it remains historically underpriced based on both technical and supply-and-demand dynamics.

For instance, the gold-silver ratio is hovering right around 87-to-1. In the modern era, that ratio has averaged closer to 60-to-1. In other words, even with the recent rally, silver is underpriced compared to gold. Historically, when the ratio has gotten wide like this, it has eventually snapped back to the mean with a surge in the price of silver. This has often happened in the midst of a gold bull rally, with silver outperforming gold.

Silver traded over $39 an ounce briefly on Monday (July 14), and it appears the much-anticipated silver bull market has finally kicked off.

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