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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a sleepy 63-86-161 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose seven points to 606. Two weeks ago, Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index spurted 1.2 points higher to 137.6. Last week, it shed half that gain, dropping to 137.0. Now, the index has lost the rest of the gain -- half of it when Mr. Zimnisky corrected for late-to-arrive data and the other half through a 0.3-point decline this week. And so, the current fix is back at 136.4 points.

Nevertheless, the flatness continues, as rough prices have been honouring Mr. Zimnisky's latest line in the sand -- a dashed horizontal line that began when the most recent slide flattened in midsummer. The line hugs the 136-point level, well below the 149-point mark at which Mr. Zimnisky dug in a previous dashed defence, depicting a period of stability that ran through most of last winter. Between the two, rough diamond prices fell about 10 per cent through the spring and into midsummer -- often a tough time for rough diamond producers.

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