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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a cheerful 91-59-160 as the TSX Venture Exchange dipped one point to 787. Last week's update of Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index brought good news and bad news, and more of the former than the latter. This week's setting left no doubt about the news, as it was all good. And so -- hallelujah! -- Mr. Zimnisky now has rough diamond prices at 129.5 points, up 1.3 points on the week with a gain of a full percentage point.

And so, all but two of Mr. Zimnisky's calendar comparisons are now in the black. (Mind you, they are important exceptions: Not only are rough prices still 5.3 per cent lower than a year ago, they are also down 18.2 per cent over the past decade.) A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, it is said, but rough diamond prices will have to plod merrily northward for many more steps to gain just a smidgin of investor interest. Still, the past six months are an encouraging start, with prices about 5 per cent above their multiyear low, set in early February.

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