 Silver is outpacing gold, has reclaimed its place on a prestigious list from Bitcoin and is driving up ASX stocks. All amid tips of bigger things ahead.

Silver is outpacing gold, has reclaimed its place on a prestigious list from Bitcoin and is driving up ASX stocks. All amid tips of bigger things ahead.

Move over gold, copper … Bitcoin, too. Because silver, a precious metal with high industrial use, is coming through.

Let’s get real here – it’s outperforming its loudmouth, look-at-me, precious metal big brother gold this year as it surges and trades at an 11-year high – and closes in on copper for YTD commodity gains.

According to many an analyst, silver, like gold has solid momentum behind it, too.

The world’s second-most valuable metal now has a market cap of about $US1.83 trillion and has broken back above the psychological round number level of $US30 an ounce, changing hands at the time of writing for $US32.51/oz.

And it may be just getting started, with FXPro senior market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich saying its surge seems to still be gathering pace.

As is the hash tag #silversqueeze.

In fact, some believe silver could make a move on its all-time high of $US50 before too long.

Here are the aforementioned commodities as they stand right now in YTD performance:

Copper: +33 per cent
Silver: +32 per cent
Gold: +17 per cent
Bitcoin: +56 per cent

Oh, and for good measure, Bitcoin is up about 56 per cent.

Earlier this year, Bitcoin turned heads when it flipped silver to become the eighth largest asset by market cap.

But silver has now staged a strong comeback, rallying more than 33 per cent since March 14 when BTC reached its all-time high of $US73,737.

According to Cointelegraph, Bitcoin would now need to hit $US93k soon to inch back ahead of silver again.

Not actually out of the question, that, but that’s another story.

Why is silver rising?

Precious metal and strong industrial commodities are generally on the rise so far this week – well, as of Monday ASX 200 close. And a decent close it was (+0.7 per cent).

As reported by Stockhead’s Eddy Sunarto in his “Closing Bell” late report, precious metals on the whole had a fantastic Friday last week, which bled into Monday.

Silver hit and has remained at an 11-year-high at the time of writing.

“Copper’s strong performance is boosting silver, too, since it’s used in industrial stuff like solar panels,” noted Sunarto.

Elsewhere, other analysts have suggested this silver rally may be just the tip of the iceberg.

Kuptsikevich is one, citing the trading technicals dark arts …

“Silver does not look overheated, as it is only now entering overbought territory on the RSI (relative strength index) on the daily time frames,” he said in a note on Friday.

“Last month, silver was actively added for another three weeks after the RSI entered levels above 70. A two-week pullback in the second half of April later removed that overbought area. Technically, this clears the way up.”

Kuptsikevich noted, too, that silver’s long-term trend is on its side, suggesting that dips under its 200-week moving average have been short lived of late.

“Long-term trends are also on the bulls’ side,” he said.

“In the last two years, they have been able to quickly turn the price to the upside after dips under the 200-week moving average.

“This year, the price is successfully pulling away from that line, but the most furious part of the rally may be ahead.

“Silver could be ready to repeat the growth spurt it showed in 2010-2011.”

Libertas Wealth Management Group president Adam Koos says the main reason for a rise in gold and silver, in particular, right now, but also to some extent copper, can be partly attributed to “economic uncertainty boosting demand for safe-haven assets, supply-chain disruptions impacting availability, and increased industrial demand, particularly for green technologies.”

Why is silver outperforming gold?

The reason may in part simply come down to the fact that lower market cap equals potentially higher returns for a similar precious metals safe-haven narrative.

Obviously it’s important to consider that traditionally silver has experienced higher volatility compared with gold, with more frequent price swings in the shorter term, which is one of the reasons gold bugs view the precious yellow one as the safer, ultimate inflation hedge and flight to safety.

Recently, though, Michele Schneider, director of Trading Education and Research at MarketGauge, was interviewed by the precious metals-focused US media outlet Kitco, and noted that silver’s “value play” made it more attractive than gold and that it tended to outperform in a higher inflationary environment.

We certainly have that at present.

“This move in silver is telling us that we have fractures in the economy, but we don’t know how these fractures are going to manifest,” Schneider said.

“Is it going to lead to a debt crisis? Is the Fed going to have to lower rates? Either way, we should expect to see higher inflation.”

ASX silver stocks on the rise

Here are some of the best-performing silver-related stocks on the ASX over the past 24 hours.

Some nice increases here. Source: Market Index

Undoubtedly the most head-turning silver stock on the local bourse over the past week is new market entrant Sun Silver, with a barnstorming beginning and leading a few other big gainers …

SUN SILVER (ASX:SS1)

+257 per cent

Market newbie Sun Silver hit the ground sprinting on Wednesday last week, arriving on the ASX with a monstrous bang and climbing 125 per cent by day’s close.

The company owns the Maverick Springs silver project in Elko County, Nevada, which boasts an inferred mineral resource of 292Moz AgEq at 72.4g/t Ag.

BOAB METALS (ASX:BML)

+40 per cent

This junior is focused on the advancement of the Sorby Hills Joint Venture base metals project (75 per cent) in Western Australia and its Manbarrum project in the Northern Territory. Reserves: 53Moz silver (17.5Moz Measured, 12.1Moz Indicated, and 23.4Moz Inferred).

Like the following silver stocks, BML doesn’t have fresh news over the past week, but is strongly trading off the commodity price surge …

Other notable risers:

HORIZON MINERALS (ASX:HRZ) +35 per cent
UNICO SILVER (ASX:USL) +20 per cent
INVESTIGATOR RESOURCES (ASX:IVR) : +16 per cent
29METALS (ASX:29M) +16 per cent
ALICANTO MINERALS (ASX:AQI) +15 per cent
SILVER MINES (ASX:SVL) +10 per cent
ARGENT MINERALS (ASX:ARD) +9 per cent

This content first appeared on stockhead.com.au

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Originally published as Silver surfs gold’s precious, safe-haven wave and these ASX stocks are capitalising

Stocks ride wave as silver surfs past gold

Silver is outperforming gold, reaching an 11-year high, and driving up ASX stocks. Analysts predict further growth for silver, with a market cap of $US1.83 trillion. Bitcoin's performance is also noted, with Bitcoin needing to hit $US93k to surpass silver again. The silver rally is attributed to economic uncertainty, supply-chain disruptions, and increased industrial demand, particularly for green technologies. Notable ASX silver stocks experiencing significant gains include Sun Silver, Boab Metals, Horizon Minerals, Unico Silver, Investigator Resources, 29Metals, Alicanto Minerals, Silver Mines, and Argent Minerals.