Mumbai: Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF), a New York based non-profit organisation, said its Q2 2022 Fancy Color Diamond Index (FCDI) saw a price rise in all colours and sizes of fancy colour diamonds, with an average increase of 0.8%. This upward trend is apparent compared to other global indices, such as the Dow Jones -11.3%, the S&P -16.4%, gold -6.7%, and white diamonds -4.0%.

Fancy Vivids across all colour categories showed an increase of 1%, with a rise of 2.6% over the past 12 months. The Fancy and Fancy Intense categories showed an increase of 0.7% and 0.8% respectively, with a 3.5% and 3.2% rise over the past 12 months.

The Yellow segment rose overall by 0.9% in Q2, led by an increase of 1.5% in the Fancy category, and 1.2% in the Fancy Intense category. The most noticeable increase is in the Fancy 8-ct category (4.9%), while the 5-ct and 8-ct in all intensities rose by 2.1% and 1.6%, respectively. This quarter, the weakest performance was in Fancy Intense 1.5-carat (-0.8%).

Pink diamonds rose overall by 0.8%, driven mainly by the Fancy Vivid category that increased by 1.5%, and the Fancy Vivid 10-ct and Fancy 2-ct categories, both of which rose by 0.9%. The biggest increase over the past 12 months was seen in the Fancy 5-ct category (6.3%). The only significant decrease this quarter was in the Fancy 8-ct with a -1.3% decrease.

Ten-carat Blues of all intensities showed the highest rise (2.1%), with the Fancy 10-ct category rising by 2.2% this quarter and the Fancy Vivid 10-ct category a close second (2.1%). The Fancy Intense 1-ct category rose most during the past year (5.2%), outperforming Fancy 1-ct and Fancy Vivid 1-ct, which rose by 1.1% and 1.6% over the past 12 months, respectively. No categories decreased by over 1% this quarter, with the closest being a -0.8% drop in the Fancy 3-ct category.

FCRF Board member Ishaia Gol explained, “It is evident that the increase in prices is driven by two market forces that haven’t occurred simultaneously in quite some time: That is, high demand for fancy colour diamonds on the retail side, and fierce competition on rough in tenders.”