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Gold rose slightly on Wednesday, but its price increase was outshined by that of silver Murad Sezer/Reuters

Shares of silver mining companies rose on Tuesday as the price of the metal jumped, outperforming the rest of the stock market.

Silver for March delivery on the Comex soared $1.11 to close at $29.89, while spot silver was up 93 cents to 29.97, a gain of 3.86 percent.

In late afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.63 percent to 12,470.87, the NASDAQ composite was up 1.05 percent to 2,704.62 and the S&P 500 was up 0.96 percent to 1,293.00.

Silver Wheaton Corp. was up 3.61 percent to $31.28 per share, Thor Industries was up 1.94 percent to $28.39 per share and Pan American Silver Corp. was up 3.17 percent to $23.07 per share.

Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation was up 4.94 percent to $26.77 per share, Hecla Mining Company was up 3.7 percent to $5.88 per share, Silvercorp Metals Inc. was up 3.68 percent to $7.33 per share and Silver Standards Resources Inc. was up 5.6 percent to $15.68 per share.

The gains on Tuesday also surpassed those of gold mining companies.

On the London Stock Exchange, Fresnillo Plc was up 4.1 percent to 1,705.10 pence sterling per share and Hochschild Mining Plc was up 1.79 percent to 419.68 pence sterling.

Exchange funds backed by silver were also up. iShares Silver Trust was up 3.7 percent to $29.18, Sprott Physical Silver Trust was up 0.99 percent to $15.23 and ETFS Silver Trust was up 3.66 percent to $29.76 per share.

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