It was silver’s turn to outshine its more expensive cousin for once as the price of the precious metal climbed to a ten month high.
At one point the metal was traded at more than US$17, though it had settled a little lower a couple of hours into US trading.
Traders said it was silver playing catch-up having been in the shadow of its more neighbour for most of this year.
According to research house Capital Economics, the gold/silver price ratio reached 83 times at the beginning of March, its highest level since the global recession.
This week it has fallen back to 74 times, a level that Simona Gambarini at the research house reckons it should be.
She adds the recent surge has also been flattered by the recent weakness in the US dollar and that may not be sustained if the Fed hikes US interest rates sooner rather than later.
But Gambarini believes further recovery in industrial metals prices should see silver continue to outperform gold over the next few years.
A couple of hours in to trading, spot silver was 70 cents higher at US$16.90.
All of the precious metals were having a good day due to the dip in the US currency with gold US$22 higher at US$1,254 and platinum back above US$1,000 at US1,008.
Fresnillo gains
Mexican silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES) has been one of the main beneficiaries of the metal’s recent resurgence.
This month the shares are up by 11% with broker Numis saying it was a solid performance in its most recent quarter.
Production totalled 12.2Moz of silver and 230,000 oz of gold. The shares were 4% higher today at 1.055p, comfortably their highest for a year.