Global shares bounced and silver markets surged on Monday as retail investors expanded their social-media fuelled battle against Wall Street to drive the precious metal to a five-month high.

Stock markets had been roiled last week after spike in retail demand to buy the stocks most bet against by hedge funds driving huge gains in companies such as GameStop Corp and prompting fresh concern that COVID-19 monetary and fiscal support measures were fuelling a market bubble.

With chatrooms abuzz with talk that silver was the new target, silver-exposed stocks, funds and coins jumped in Asian trade, pushing spot silver up more than 7%.

European stocks continued the trend in early deals, with London-listed miners up strongly, including Fresnillo, up 18% and leading gainers across the region.

After falling 3.6% last week – its biggest weekly fall in three months – the MSCI All-Country World Index was up 0.5% in early deals, tracking overnight gains in Asia.