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 a cheerful 110-43-157 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose 23 points to 615. Amid the market's topsy turvy response to Trumpian tariffs and retaliatory countertariffs, the diamond sector is now the epitome of stability? Well, so it seems: For the fourth week running, Paul Zimnisky, a New York-based analyst, has left his global rough diamond price index unchanged.

The current setting of Mr. Zimnisky's index is 128.3 points -- the same as last week and the week before that -- up just imperceptibly over the past month. And so, while the current fix is four points higher -- 3.2 per cent -- than the multiyear low that Mr. Zimnisky recorded in early February, it is still 83 points lower than the all-time high of 207.3 points that his index reached in mid-February of 2022.

The stability is surprising, but it may not last for long -- especially with rough diamond prices far below their record high and down about 20 per cent from a decade ago, when miners were already bemoaning weakening prices for their goods. Mr. Zimnisky points to the supply glut triggered by cheap synthetic diamonds, gems that accounted for 1 per cent of supply in 2015 but about 20 per cent of the market today.

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