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As the diamond industry gears up for its for the holiday season, fancy colour diamond prices are holding steady.
According to the Fancy Colour Diamond Index, prices of these diamonds remained stable during the third quarter of 2015, at a time when white diamond prices showed declines of 6 – 10%. The best performing fancy colour diamonds were ‘vivid’ blues, which showed price increases of up to 6% over the previous quarter.
The Fancy Colour Diamond Index is published by the non-profit Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF), and tracks pricing data for yellow, pink and blue fancy colour diamonds in three key global trading centres – Hong Kong, New York and Tel Aviv.
Between July to September 2015, the Fancy Colour Diamond Index remained practically unchanged, despite lower transaction volumes. Yellow diamond prices, especially in the ‘fancy’ category, were soft and declined by up to 2%.
Blue diamonds showed average price rises of up to 2%, driven by the ‘vivid’ category, with certain sizes (1.5 carat, 2 carat and 5 carat) increasing by 5 – 6% over the previous quarter. This marks the most significant quarterly price increase for blue diamonds in the last 12 months. Prices for pink diamonds were on average unchanged.
On a year-on-year basis, when compared with Q3 2014, blue diamonds have been the strongest performer among all colour categories with a 3 – 4% price appreciation. The highest single-category year-on-year price increase was for 5 carat vivid blue diamonds at 11%.
FCRF advisory board chairman, Eden Rachminov, said: “Demand for blue diamonds may have been magnified by the excitement being generated by the upcoming Sotheby’s auction headlined by the “Blue Moon”, one of the world’s important fancy vivid blue diamonds. This has caused increased demand against a shortage of fancy blue diamonds.”
