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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a cheerful 114-72-124 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose fractionally to 599. While the decline in rough diamond prices has flattened of late, it does continue. Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index fell another 0.2 per cent this week, the third consecutive slight drop following four weeks of ever-so-slight gains that in turn had followed two tiny declines. All said, rough prices are down about 0.6 per cent since late September but are 11.6 per cent lower than their record high reached in mid-February.

The lower prices are no shock, as the 21-month-long rally that followed the COVID-19 collapse in early 2020 was clearly unsustainable. In that stretch prices gained an average of 3 per cent each month. Thanks to a final burst at the tail end of that rally, prices are still up 2.6 per cent over the past 52 weeks, but with each passing week a significant chunk of the previous gains goes poof. Indeed, without a chart reversal, another week of flat prices could see the 52-week trend turn into the red.

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