This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.

Here is a sample of this item:

by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was an upbeat 95-67-148 as the TSX Venture Exchange added five points to 556. Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index continued its slow but steady northward trek this week, reaching 155.9 points, a 0.2-per-cent increase over last week's setting at 155.6. While Mr. Zimnisky shows a horizontal dashed line suggesting prices have been flat since the start of October, a more optimistic view has a long decline bottoming in mid-October at 152.2, with a 2.4-per-cent increase since then.

Unfortunately, that is the extent of the optimism. Prices are 13.3 per cent lower than the 180 points at which the index sat a year ago. Mr. Zimnisky put prices at an all-time high in mid-February of 2022, when his index reached 207.3, and his current setting is 24.8 per cent below that mark. Today, rough diamond prices are level with where they were through most of the 2010s. (Mr. Zimnisky has prices 7 per cent higher than in early 2019 but 10 per cent lower than in early 2014.)

The remainder is available to Stockwatch subscribers.
Sign-up for a FREE 30-day Stockwatch subscription and SEE NO ADS