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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a positive 95-75-140 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose four points to 520. Well, hallelujah! Just when it appears Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index knew of no direction but downward, this week's calculation shows a modest 0.2-per-cent increase over a week ago. Ahh, were it that simple: Investors need to take a closer look at the chart before breaking out the party hats and kazoos.

As it turns out, this is a too-good-to-be-true moment. Mr. Zimnisky has pegged the index at 152.2 points, you see, and last week the value sat at 152.8, so prices are in fact about 0.4 per cent lower than you thought they were a week ago. Mr. Zimnisky always corrects his index on the fly as late-to-arrive information appears, and there apparently was plenty of bleak and tardy news of late. Indeed, other than this week's upward jog, the previous two months now show a steady decline of about 0.5 per cent per week.

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