New York: The Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF) reported that fancy color diamond prices showed stability in most categories in Q1 2018, with fancy blue diamond prices rising moderately.
The Fancy Color Diamond Index (FCDI) indicated an overall rise of 0.1% in Q1 2018 for fancy color diamonds across all sizes and saturations. Continuing their trend from 2017, prices of blue fancy color diamonds increased by 1.0% in Q1 2018, with fancy intense and fancy vivid blues outperforming. During the same period, both yellow and pink fancy color diamond prices declined slightly by 0.1%. In comparison, in Q4 2017 the prices of yellow and pink declined by 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.
Most notably, in Q1 2018 the 2 carat vivid pink and blue diamonds showed the highest rate of appreciation in their respective color categories.
On a year-on-year basis, when compared to Q1 2017, the Fancy Color Diamond Index increased by 0.1%, with blue prices up 5.0% and yellow and pink prices down by 1.7% and 0.6%, respectively.
According to the IDEX price index, colorless diamond prices rose by 1.6% in Q1 2018.
| Category | Q1/18 vs. Q4/17 | Q1/18 vs. Q1/17 |
| All fancy color diamonds | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| All yellow fancy color diamonds | (0.1%) | (1.7%) |
| All pink fancy color diamonds | (0.1%) | (0.6%) |
| All blue fancy color diamonds | 1.0% | 5.0% |
The Fancy Color Diamond Index is published by the non-profit Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF), and tracks pricing data for yellow, pink and blue fancy color diamonds in three key global trading centers – Hong Kong, New York and Tel Aviv.
FCRF Advisory Board member Ishaia Gol said, “In the past 12 months or so prices of rare fancy color diamonds of between 0.30 to 0.70 carat have increased much more than those of large fancy color diamonds, due to the relatively smaller total amount per stone”.
