Silver surged nearly 4 percent on Thursday, hitting an 11-month top and lifting gold with it, as commodities rallied on firmer oil prices and optimism over the Chinese economy. Spot silver rose 3.9 percent to $17.595 an ounce, its highest since May 2015. Gold rose as much 1.3 percent to a session high of $1,260.
"There is more and more money coming into commodities," said a trader in Shanghai.
"Commodity prices of steel and other industrial metals are up sharply as Chinese economic data has become much better. Precious metals are rising with it, especially silver," he said.
Silver, used widely in manufacturing, has outperformed gold in recent days, helped by a break through chart resistance at its late October high on Tuesday and upbeat data from China.
Platinum rose 1 percent on Thursday, trading near its highest in eight months. Palladium climbed to $601.36 an ounce, its highest in a month.