Near-term outlook bleak: Enter silver with a horizon of at least 2-3 years

Industrial recovery, higher demand from new age technologies could propel a turnaround

Silver has underperformed over the past two years, declining 11.1 per cent. Over the same period, gold has been almost flat (up 1.1 per cent). With several fund houses having launched their exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and fund of funds recently, many investors would be wondering if this is a good time to enter silver.

Recently, HDFC Mutual Fund completed the new fund offer (NFO) of its silver ETF. Edelweiss Mutual Fund has an ongoing NFO for a fund of fund (FoF) that will invest 50:50 in gold and silver ETFs. So far, the mutual fund industry’s total asset under management