Silver prices fell sharply... May 1

By V. Phani Kumar and Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Silver prices fell sharply in a matter of minutes during early Monday trading in Asia, though some of the plunge may have been exaggerated by reportedly thin volume.

At one point early Monday, the price dived 12% within 11 minutes, according to Dow Jones Newswires, which put the intraday high at $48.15 an ounce before a plunge to $42.21.

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By 10:00 a.m. Hong Kong time (10:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern time), spot silver traded at $44.93 an ounce, continuing to recover from below the $43 level earlier in the day, according to Kitco data.

Some reports pointed to low volume, due to holidays in some markets Monday, as exaggerating the drop, and said the sharp drop pointed to a speculative move against the silver price.

Silver prices also continued to recover on the futures market, with the contract for July delivery SIN11 -9.30%  down 8% at $44.720, also recovering from the day’s $42.20 low.

Gold hit too

Gold prices also fell, though by a less dramatic margin. Spot gold was trading just below $1,550 an ounce, after sliding as low as $1,543.10 an ounce from the day’s $1,578.20 high.

By 10:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, spot gold had recovered to $1,549.10.

Benchmark gold futures for June delivery settled at $1,556.40 Friday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, but the contract GCM11 -0.73%  dropped to $1,547.50 in electronic trade early Monday.

Among other precious metals, platinum prices were down 1.8% at $1,839.00 an ounce, and palladium dropped 1.8% to $775 an ounce in the spot market. 

Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles.

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