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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a positive 95-85-130 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose fractionally to 575. The stalemate between supply and demand continued through another week, although there was a modest dip in rough diamond prices according to Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index. Mr. Zimnisky set his index at 148.6 points this week, a cumulative 0.4-point drop from a week ago. Most of the decline is new, but Mr. Zimnisky did lower last week's fix by 0.1 point based on late-to-arrive information.

And so, rough prices are down 0.2 per cent on the week and are also down 0.2 per cent over the past month, as the flattening of the curve is now entering its sixth week. This follows a six-week slump that began in mid-December, once the Indian diamond sector ended its voluntary two-month moratorium on purchases of rough. Miners also held back much of their supply during that time, but once the buying and selling resumed, Mr. Zimnisky's index lost nearly eight points -- a drop of about 5 per cent. It had managed to rise perhaps 2 per cent during the moratorium.

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