India's silver imports may jump 20% in 2010.

MUMBAI: A partial recovery in consumption during the festival season is seen pushing up India's silver imports in 2010 by 20% on year to 1,200 tonnes, potentially supporting world prices, a trade body head said.

"Silver sales have been good this year for festivals. There has been a rise of 25%. Imports may also rise on the back of this to 1,200 tonnes in 2010," Prithviraj Kothari, president of the Bombay Bullion Association said.

Kothari said last year India , the world's largest consumer of the white metal, had imported 1,000 tonnes of silver.

He said the rise in India's imports are likely to support the global prices, which rallied for a seventh consecutive day to fresh 30-year highs on Tuesday, spurred by a weaker dollar and firmer industrial metals. "We expect silver to test resistance of $32," said Kothari.

Spot silver rose to an intraday high of $30.31 an ounce before edging back to $30.23 an ounce. In the domestic market, silver prices on the Multi Commodity Exchange may breach Rs 50,000 ($1,120) per kg by December-end from the current record of Rs 45,394.

Gold usually influences the white metal as investors tend to treat all precious metals as one.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com