Silver prices surge more than 3% in first trrading day of the New Year

London (Jan 2)   Silver rose 3.2 percent to $19.94 an ounce, while U.S. silver futures gained more than 5 percent.

Silver was the second-largest loser for the year on the 19-commodity Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB index, preceded by corn and followed by gold.

Spot platinum was up 1.5 percent at $1,391 an ounce - it posted a 12 percent annual loss in 2013. Best-performing palladium rose 1.3 percent to $720.25 an ounce and was the only precious metal to post a positive performance in 2013, up nearly 2 percent.