Silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are now becoming popular among investors. SEBI gave its go-ahead to silver ETFs in September 2021. Let’s understand silver ETF!
Silver ETFs are exchange-traded funds that can be bought and sold on the stock exchange. Since the benchmark of silver ETF is based on spot silver prices, you can buy it close to the actual price of silver.
Benefits of investing in Silver ETF
Through ETF, you can invest in silver units, which makes it easy to buy silver in small quantities or through Systematic Investment Plan (SIP).
Silver ETF is kept in a demat account, in which only annual demat charge has to be paid. Apart from this, there is no fear of theft. On the other hand, additional expenses have to be incurred to keep physical silver safe, and there is also a risk of theft.
Silver ETF can be easily bought and sold like stocks. In this way, if you need money, you can sell it anytime.
Why should one invest in Silver ETF?
Silver is now becoming an influential bullion (precious metal). According to experts, whenever economies strengthen, the demand for silver starts increasing. One meaning of this is that when inflation rises, the price of silver increases more than gold. In this way, silver can prove to be a better way to protect against inflation.
How to invest in silver ETFs?
You need a demat account to buy silver ETFs. You can buy units of silver ETFs available on NSE or BSE, and that amount will be deducted from the bank account linked to your demat account. You can use apps like Groww, Upstox, or Paytm to open a demat account for free. After this, you can select the silver ETF as per your choice.
Top 10 silver ETFs in the past one year

ETFs	Market Cap	1-Year Return	Expense Ratio
UTI Silver Exchange Traded Fund	Rs 120 Cr	32.80%	0.52
Aditya Birla Sun Life Silver ETF	Rs 450 Cr	31.89%	0.35
DSP Silver ETF	Rs 231 Cr	31.62%	0.50
ICICI Prudential Silver ETF	Rs 3714 Cr	31.55%	0.40
Kotak Silver ETF	Rs 713 Cr	31.47%	0.45
Mirae Asset Silver ETF	Rs 82 Cr	31.36%	0.40
Nippon India Silver ETF	Rs 4,777 Cr	31.26%	0.56
HDFC Silver ETF	Rs 321 Cr	30.80%	0.40
UTI Silver ETF FoF	Rs 33 Cr	30.80%	0.50
HDFC Silver ETF FoF – Regular Plan	Rs 139 Cr	30.78%	0.60