Overall, price performance during Q2 was broadly in line with long-term trends in which continued demand-driven price increases for pink and blue fancy color diamonds are partially offset by continued price declines for lower-cost, commercial yellow fancy color diamonds.

Price of blue and pink fancy color diamonds increased 1.1 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, in the second quarter. Yellow fancy color diamonds saw price declines of 0.5 percent less than during the first quarter.

In sharp contrast, according to RAPI™, white diamond prices declined across the board during Q2 2016, declining between 0.7-5.6 percent. Within this, the 3-carat category was the worst performer.

In the categories of color and size, fancy intense and vivid blues and fancy vivid pinks across all carat sizes stood as the strongest performers. Most notably, the fancy vivid blue category saw an 8.6 percent price rise driven by the 1ct and 5ct sizes. The fancy yellow grade category declined by 3.7 percent, mainly driven by sluggish demand for the 3ct and 5ct sizes.

FCRF Advisory Board chairman Eden Rachminov commented that “unsurprisingly, fancy intense and fancy vivid color diamonds of all colors enjoy robust demand in the market, driven mainly by supply scarcity that is not likely to change in the foreseeable future”. He added that “the situation is different with commercial fancy yellow goods, which is being adversely affected by sluggish U.S. demand”.

The Fancy Color Diamond Index on y-o-y basis was up 0.5 percent, with blue and pink fancy color diamonds up 4.1 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, and fancy yellow diamonds down 3.5 percent.

The Fancy Color Diamond Index is calculated based on live pricing inputs from a large sample of the world’s leading traders of fancy color diamonds in Asia, the United States and the Middle East.