After the July declines, polished diamond prices were flat in August. The Mercury Diamond Global Tracker™ (MDGT™) averaged 113.85 in August 2018, up 0.03% over July. This is not unusual behavior for prices in August, a period of limited activity between polished diamond wholesalers. Polished trade is generally very limited, as traders are on their summer vacations. Historically, prices fluctuate very mildly in August, and at times are unchanged.
The Indian market is in the headlines again. This time, because of news in the Indian press that a consortium of lenders to a large diamond firm decided to file an insolvency case against it. A few days later, more banking and lending-related news came out that cast a heavy shadow over the Indian diamond hub.
August is generally a period of slow activity in the diamond industry. Traders, manufacturers and wholesalers in Belgium, Israel and the US were away on their summer holidays as were many industry members that are based in India. The exception to this is US retailers, as those operating in popular tourist destinations saw a rise in in-store consumer traffic, which then spurred limited trading activity, mostly among American and Indian suppliers.
The summer months are here and with them polished diamond activity has slowed down. Demand from the retail and jewelry manufacturing sectors is down, and wholesale trading has decreased, leading in turn to a decline in wholesale polished diamondprices. The Mercury Diamond Global Tracker™ (MDGT™) averaged 113.81 in July 2018, which is a 0.3% decline compared to June.
The June Mercury Diamond polished price report has shown that prices of most round diamond size categories declined compared to May. The two size ranges that did rise were 0.50- and 0.70-carats. All other size ranges declined.