One billion ounces of silver traded in London on Monday as prices surged - LBMA

LONDON (Reuters) - The amount of silver traded in the London market surged to 1.006 billion ounces on Monday, triple the level typical in recent months, as prices rocketed to their highest since 2013, the London Bullion Market Association said on Tuesday.

Small investors flooded into the silver market in recent days, answering calls on Reddit and other social media to buy massive amounts of metal to push up prices.

In frenetic trading, spot silver rose from $25 an ounce on Thursday morning to as high as $30.03 on Monday before the rally began to fizzle.

London is the largest market for physical silver and gold.

"The high volume (on Monday) marked the culmination of a week of exceptional, but not extreme trading," the LBMA said in a statement.

"In the five trading days to 1 February, average daily silver volume was 662.36 million oz, double the 12-week average of 325.35m oz to end December 2020."

The LBMA also said "throughout this period, the market continued to demonstrate liquidity and durability, and no issues arose impacting either trading, settlement, or the efficiency of the daily price auction."

(Reporting by Peter Hobson; editing by Jason Neely and Barbara Lewis)