* US silver futures hit 31-year high at $49.82/oz
* Spot gold rises to record of $1,517.71/oz
* Coming up: U.S. NAHB housing market index; 1400 GMT
(Adds details, comments; updates prices)
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, April 25 (Reuters) - Spot silver surged more than
5 percent to above $49 ounce on Monday, buoyed by a weak dollar
and strong physical demand in Asia that also propelled gold to a
record high for a seventh consecutive session.
Spot silver hit a 31-year high of $49.31 an ounce,
before easing to $49.16 by 0854 GMT. The level was 17 cents off
a 1980 record high, according to Reuters data. It was heading
for its biggest daily gain in five months.
"Everyone is buying," said a Hong Kong-based dealer. "There
is stop-loss buying, as well as a good buying interest from
China."
The dollar index languished around a three-year low
on Monday, with investors expecting further weakness on concerns
about the size of the U.S. budget deficit and the expectation
that interest rates in the world's largest economy would remain
low.
Concerns about rising inflation in many parts of the world
have also made precious metals attractive to investors.
Ongoing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, and
sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone, helped enhance the lure
of precious metals.
Spot gold hit a record high of $1,518.10 an ounce,
before easing to $1,517.80, up nearly 1 percent.
Precious metals futures contracts rallied along with spot
prices.
U.S. silver futures <SIcv1> jumped 8.2 percent to $49.82 an
ounce in unusually large trading volume, just about 50 cents off
its all-time peak of $50.35 hit on Jan. 18, 1980. The contract
eased to $49.17 an ounce on Monday.
The U.S. contract was catching up with moves on physical
silver on Friday, when a holiday closed the futures market.
U.S. gold futures <GCcv1> also rose to a record high, at
$1,518.6.
Spot silver broke through resistance at $48 per ounce. That
triggered some automatic buying, analysts said.
"As the market edged higher, a series of stop-loss buying
was triggered, especially after silver rose above $48," said
Yuichi Ikemizu, Tokyo branch manager of Standard Bank.
Technical analysis showed silver could be headed towards
$54.78 per ounce, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst.
Buying interest in physical silver has jumped in markets
from China, India to the Middle East.
"Everyone wants a piece of silver, right from a cab driver
to a professional," said Harshad Ajmera, proprietor of
Kolkata-based JJ Gold House in India, "It looks like the whole
of one billion population is chasing silver."
For retail consumers, silver at near $50 an ounce is still a
lot cheaper than $1,500 gold, but for investors, silver is more
expensive relative to gold than it has been for more than three
decades.
Silver prices have climbed nearly 60 percent so far this
year, after jumping more than 80 percent in 2010. Silver's rally
this year has outpaced gold's 7 percent rise and the 10-percent
gain in the 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index .
Despite silver's rise relative to gold, it was still
attracting investors.
Holdings in the world's largest silver-backed
exchange-traded fund, iShares Silver Trust , have risen by
2.4 percent so far this year, compared to a 4 percent decline in
the holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's top gold ETF.
"The world is in love with the stuff right now. Silver ETFs
are doing a roaring trade and silver bullion is being snapped up
by retail investors," said a trader at an international bank in
Singapore.
"But I would caution against chasing prices right now. There
is way too much fizz in the market right now."
Precious metals prices 0854 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1517.80 14.25 +0.95 6.93
Spot Silver 49.16 2.49 +5.34 59.30
Spot Platinum 1829.99 19.19 +1.06 3.54
Spot Palladium 772.72 7.24 +0.95 -3.35
COMEX GOLD JUN1 1518.20 14.40 +0.96 6.81 22742
COMEX SILVER MAY1 49.17 3.11 +6.75 58.92 42005
Euro/Dollar 1.4597
Dollar/Yen 81.98
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
(Additional reporting by Lewa Pardomuan, Nick Trevethan in
SINGAPORE, Siddesh Mayenkar in MUMBAI, Chikako Mogi in TOKYO;
Editing by Ed Lane)
