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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Thursday was a so-so 77-69-154 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell five points to 633. Rough diamond prices had an eventful week, although they remained essentially flat despite more than the usual amount of tinkering going into the latest setting of Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index.

The good news is that rough prices rose this week, sufficient that Mr. Zimnisky added 0.8 point, a gain of 0.7 per cent. Unfortunately, late-to-arrive data over the past several weeks resulted in a lowering of recent index settings. That lowering included a 1.3-point drop to the value last week such that the current setting of 127.8 points is 0.5 point lower than where we thought it was a week ago. Nevertheless, the current fix is essentially where Mr. Zimnisky had placed it five weeks ago, which is 3.5 points -- about 2.7 per cent -- above the multiyear low of 124.3 points set in early February.

While the index has wandered a bit, it has remained flattish if not flat since early December as Mr. Zimnisky's latest dashed horizontal line appears to be holding into its fourth month. Yes, the previous plateau in prices ran just as long -- arguably longer -- but it was set along the 136-point mark, some 11 points above his current metaphorical line of defence, which patrols the 125-point mark.

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