Silver on rise

Press, 8 April 1987, Page 33

Silver on rise

NZPA-Reuter London Silver looks set to become the poor man’s gold again, as its price rose on Monday (early yesterday N.Z. time) to levels not seen for nearly two years, dealers and commodities analysts said. The price of silver bullion was fixed at 5U56.4990 an ounce in London in the morning, the highest level since late May, 1985. Investors who look to gold as a shelter against inflation, but who wince at its price of SUS42O an ounce, started buying silver last week, said Robert Bhar, an analyst at commodities brokers Rudolf Wolff and Co.

“There’s been new demand as people realised silver was undervalued with respect to platinum and gold,” he said. He said investors buy silver and gold as stores of value in times of inflation, adding that recent demand for silver dees not appear to be related to industrial needs. Mr Bhar said speculators, seeing this demand and looking for even more to come in the near future, have also started buying significant amounts of silver. Meanwhile, the price of gold also rose, with the price of bullion fixed in London at $U5421.45 an ounce, up 5U52.75 an ounce from the afternoon fixing on Friday.