Silver is going nuts

The price of silver is charging on Monday, as expectations of central bank action following the UK's vote to leave the European Union increase.

The silver spot price is up over 4% at $20.42 per ounce at around 12:20 p.m. BST (7:20 a.m. ET), a level not seen since August 2014. Earlier in the day silver passed the $21 per ounce mark for the first time since July 2014.

If gains continue, silver will see its fifth successive day of price increases, equivalent to gains of 15% in less than a week's trading. Here's how the price of silver looks on the day:

The key driver of silver's rally is the expectation of easing from the Bank of England. Much like gold, silver generally sees gains when market expectations are for central banks around the world to ease monetary policy. That's because policy actions could devalue other assets.

Since Bank of England governor Mark Carney indicated on Thursday that further monetary policy action - either in the form of quantitative easing or a cut to interest rates - could be possible, precious metals prices have rallied. The metal has now gained almost 50% since the beginning of 2016 as part of a broader commodity price rally.

Silver's price jump on Monday has given a big boost to the shares of FTSE 100 listed precious metals miner Fresnillo. Despite being listed in the UK, Fresnillo has its operational headquarters in Mexico and concentrates its operations in the Central American country.

At around 12:20 p.m. BST (7:20 a.m. ET), Fresnillo's shares are at the top of the FTSE 100, higher by more than 6% on the day. Fresnillo has now gained more than 170% since the start of the year and is the biggest annual riser so far.

Here's how Fresnillo looks:

Elsewhere in the precious metals markets, gold is marginally higher on the day, trading up by 1.16% at $1,354 per ounce. That increase has boosted gold miner Randgold Resources. Randgold's FTSE-listed shares are 4.4% higher, second only to Fresnillo in terms of single day gains.

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