NEW YORK: Silver stretched its rally to a third session on Monday, jumping as much as 11.2% to a near eight-year high as retail investors switched their focus from GameStop and other stocks on to the metal.

As of 1:14 p.m. EST (1814 GMT), spot silver was up 8.3% at $29.23 an ounce, easing back slightly after having earlier hit its highest since February 2013 at $30.03.

Paving the way for a 19% surge in prices since Thursday, posts began circulating on Reddit appealing to small investors to buy silver mining stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETF) backed by physical silver bars.

Data from iShares Silver Trust ETF, the largest silver-backed ETF, showed its silver holdings jumped by a record 37 million shares from Thursday to Friday alone, each representing an ounce of silver.

Spot gold jumped 1% to $1,865.29 per ounce, while US gold futures rose 1% to $1,868.10.

Platinum gained 5.3% to $1,129.28 an ounce and palladium rose 0.9% to $2,246.28.

“This social media speculation is at the early stage for silver and there is uncertainty about how much more momentum we can have,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, adding that due to positive fundamentals, the addition of new investors will be a longer term positive for silver.