SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Silver prices jumped to their biggest five-month high on Monday and small silver miners listed in Australia fired after social media calls to buy the metal and emulate the frenzy that drove GameStop shares to rise 1,500% in two weeks.
Spot silver was up 7.4% to $ 28.99 an ounce, the highest since mid-August. The shares of a handful of mining companies, such as Argent Minerals, Boab Metals and Investigator Resources, jumped more than 15%.
Coin-selling sites have also reported unprecedented demand and delays in gold delivery. The movements are the most recent example of small traders buying in droves, mainly for stocks and other assets against which there were large bets, resulting in large losses for major investors. [MKTS/GLOB]
“There is a curious situation now when the Reddit crowd has turned its attention to a larger whale in terms of trying to catalyze a small compression in the silver market,” said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne.
“The most important factor here is that silver is strongly sold, the paper market is much, much larger than the underlying commodity can justify,” he said.
“There are many comments on these platforms for miners.”
Silver prices have risen 15% since closing Wednesday, when messages started circulating on forums like Reddit, encouraging users to buy the metal and raise prices.
Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Edition by Daniel Wallis and Lincoln Feast.