India hoards silver at unprecedented rate, with imports up 400% in 1 year

India just hauled in $5.9 billion worth of silver in four months. That’s a 400% jump from the end of 2024 and a 64% leap over its 2022 record. From 2013 to 2019, silver imports were about $1.5 billion per year.

The country’s silver demand is being pushed by jewelry buyers, physical bar investors, and heavy industrial usage in things like electronics and solar panels. India has always been one of the biggest silver buyers globally, but this year, it’s going full throttle.

Nifty Metal Index rallies as silver leads the charge in Indian stocks

The buying fever is hitting India’s stock market too. The Nifty Metal Index, which tracks mining and metals companies, just had its best opening quarter since 2018. It’s crushing the Nifty 50, sending the metals-to-main-index ratio to the highest point in 11 years. Metal stocks are flying, and silver’s right at the center of it.

On the global side, spot silver jumped 5% to $94.41 an ounce, hitting an all-time high of $94.61. Prices have now climbed more than 32% since January. But despite the record-setting price, India’s demand cooled off. Physical silver started trading at a ₹10,000 per kilo discount.

“There is a ₹10,000 per kilo (kg) discount for bars prevailing in the physical market here,” said Surendra Mehta, the IBJA national secretary. His association’s pricing is used by the Reserve Bank of India for its sovereign gold bond program.

Surendra said dealers in Mumbai were offering silver at ₹292,628 per kg, though the landed cost was ₹302,628. Meanwhile, MCX silver futures surged by 5.5% to ₹3.03 lakh per kg on Monday, per data from Reuters.

The Nippon India Silver ETF surged by 5.66% to ₹284.70 per gram, pushing its YTD returns to 32.45%. In the past year, it’s delivered 225%. By comparison, the Nifty index dropped 2.15% so far this year and only managed 10.3% over the past 12 months.

ETF assets have ballooned from ₹15,339.21 crore in March 2025 to ₹72,907.44 crore by the end of December 2025, Kotak Mutual Fund reported.

Silver profits are also showing up in earnings. Hindustan Zinc (the company that controls about three-fourths of India’s zinc market) posted a 46.2% profit jump in Q3. Its profit hit ₹39.16 billion ($430.6 million), up from ₹26.78 billion last year.

Revenue was up 27.5%, and mined and refined production grew 4% each, both record highs for the October to December quarter.

Gold rose 1.7% to $4,672.49 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures added 1.8% to $4,677.70. The yen and Swiss franc also gained. Platinum added 1.5% to $2,362.65, and palladium increased 1.1% to $1,819.99.