LONDON, July 8: Silver fixed at 425 cents per ounce on Tuesday, its lowest level since November 3, 1993.

On Monday at its official fixing, silver was valued at 447.35 cents.Silver prices have crashed over the past few days behind the value of gold which has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 12 years. Silver was heavily sold and was down 20 cents to $4.24-$4.26.

"The support level at 434 cents has gone and silver could technically be heading for the 1991 low of 352 cents," said analyst Fran Skelley at Credit Suisse First Boston.

Dealers said good levels of buying of silver from end users which had helped support prices earlier this year dried up completely over the past couple of days.

The gold market found a foothold on Tuesday after losing nearly $15 per ounce in a slide that began last Thursday.

But market analysts said gold's downtrend would take some stopping and forecast target prices under $300 an ounce being visited within three months.Gold was fixed at $317.60, against $318.00 on Monday afternoon and more than $334.00 a week ago.

Dealers said the market was still very soft amid signs that further losses were to come.

The New York market, which re-opened on Monday after the US Independence Day holiday, fell sharply to come into line with lower values established in Asia and Europe on Monday.

The gold price, which has been under pressure all year from the threat of central bankers selling gold from their reserves, finally cracked last Thursday when the Reserve Bank of Australia announced it had sold 167 tonnes of gold from its reserves during the previous six months.

The bearishness began to impact the other precious metals on Monday and continued on Tuesday.

Slump in platinum prices continued with a fall to $405.00-$408.00 from Monday's $410.50-$414.50.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.