Prices of fancy colour diamonds were down by 0.7 per cent in the third quarter of the year, but business transactions have started to pick up during the period, the Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF) revealed.

With the market showing slight signs of recovery, the Fancy Color Diamond Index for Q3 2020 is likewise gradually stabilising, noted FCRF.

Oren Schneider, a member of FCRF’s advisory board, commented, “While diamond trading is not yet fully back to pre-Covid-19 ‘normalcy’, we are clearly seeing an increasing fancy colour diamond transaction activity as a result of governments easing regulatory restrictions. We are looking forward to further improvement in the business environment leading into 2021.”

The FCRF was unable to conduct a price survey in the first two quarters of the year amid the Covid-19 outbreak. 

The majority of fancy colour diamond categories saw a decline of less than 1 per cent in Q3, with yellows faring slightly better than their blue and pink counterparts. The “vivid” category in all colour segments were stable, recording a 0.1 per cent dip in prices compared to other categories – “fancy grade” and “fancy intense” dropped by at 1.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively. 

Yellow diamond prices contracted by 0.3 per cent, with the 8-carat fancy intense yellow category showing an increase of 1 per cent. In contrast, the 5-carat fancy intense yellow category sank by 2.4 per cent. Pink and blue diamonds both saw a 0.8 per cent drop in prices in Q3.

FCRF tracks pricing data for yellow, pink, and blue fancy colour diamonds in the major global trading centres of Hong Kong, New York, Geneva and Tel Aviv.