RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers' revenue and profit beat expectations in the second fiscal quarter as stores unlocked their doors and the retailer upgraded its digital capabilities."Sales improved sequentially throughout the second quarter as we reopened stores and remained agile and innovative in these unprecedented times," CEO Virginia Drosos said Thursday. "During the quarter, we also scaled o...Read More
RAPAPORT... The resurgence in rough-diamond trading will persist for another two months as manufacturers fill supply shortages and retail demand rises, dealers predicted."There's still a gap, because demand is there, and supply is very limited and will be limited for a couple of months," a sightholder said. Polished originating from rough bought in August won't hit the market until mid-Octobe...Read More
Positive sentiment as the trade adapts to the Covid-19 selling environment. Polished prices firming due to shortages. 1 ct. RAPI +3.2% in Aug. Manufacturers seeing better profit margins after De Beers and Alrosa reduced rough prices. Polished production increasing but coronavirus restrictions still limiting Surat factories. Rough trading steady. Momentum likely to continue through October as retai...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The IDEX Polished Diamond Price Index showed long-awaited signs of post-Covid recovery with a slow but steady rise throughout August. It closed the month up 0.6 per cent, the biggest increase since the "false dawn" in April, when it rose 0.7 per cent. During August the Index increased marginally most days, with only occasional exceptions. In the previous month, July, the...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Jewelers for Children charity will celebrate its achievements - raising almost $57m to support kids - with a day of promotions and fundraising.Its third annual JFC Day will be held on Saturday, 26 September, with charity partners rallying their local supporters to visit jewelers and say thank you. "The pandemic has presented a host of issues not only for...Read More
(IDEX Online) - More than 100 people have reportedly been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to receive diamonds smuggled from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland.A Chinese couple had 150 packets of undocumented polished diamonds and details of their destinations when they were picked up in the border metropolis of Shenzhen (pictured), a special economic zone which is home to more than 2,300...Read More
RAPAPORT... Jewelry was one of the top-selling categories at Macy's during the second fiscal quarter, even as overall sales declined at the department-store chain.Group revenue dropped 36% to $3.56 billion in the three months ending August 1, while comparable-store sales - at owned and licensed shops open for at least a year - fell 35%, the retailer reported Wednesday. However, sales rose at its "...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Industry veteran Kim E. Pelletier has been appointed as CEO of Get Diamonds, the new diamond trading platform launched by World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB).She has worked in the past for De Beers, Polygon, Hearts On Fire, John Hardy, Stephen Dweck, Michael Aram and, most recently, for De Beers Sightholder IGC NV. "I am both thrilled, and humbled, to be offered this ex...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Gem Diamonds has recovered another large Type II white diamond at its Letseng mine, in Lesotho.News of the 223-carat stone comes just days after the London-based miner announced a 442-carat diamond, valued at $18m.Letseng is the highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world and has yielded 60-plus white gem quality diamonds over 100 carats since it was acquire...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sales of jewelry and other luxury goods in Hong Kong fell by more than half in July, according to new figures.It was the worst affected sector of all, with a year-on-year decline of 53.7 per cent to $328m.Sales were hit by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a two-week quarantine requirement for tourists from mainland China, and continuing anti-government protests.Figures for the fir...Read More
RAPAPORT... Antwerp-based diamond manufacturer HB has hired Boaz Lev as operations director and one of its managing partners.Lev spent 12 years at Malca-Amit, where he was the managing director of its Belgium division, helping to introduce several of the logistics company's services for the diamond trade.HB, which diamantaire Oded Mansori established, gained prominence this year after partnering w...Read More
RAPAPORT... The International Gemological Institute (IGI) recently graded a 10.06-carat, fancy-vivid-pink lab-grown diamond that had previously been submitted as a fancy-intense yellow.The stone, which IGI had already fully assessed and graded in its original state, was returned in July for a second round, the lab said Tuesday. IGI found that the lab-grown diamond's color had been shifted using a...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Uncertain times are reflected in an uncertain market, with few price movements during July and little to discern by way of overall trends. A glance at the charts shows a more or less equal split between red (falls) and green (rises). Key one-carats (1.00-1.24cts), both round and fancy cuts, were pretty much static. Only the smallest fancies (0.18-0.22cts) showed consistent increase...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A spectacular yellow-brown diamond fetched $325,000 in the first online-only sale of diamonds by Christie's.The Jewels Online: Summer Sparkle realized $1,492,625 in total, with 84 per cent sold by lot.The headline lot was a 20.21-carat pear-shaped stone (pictured) set in a fine white diamond necklace. Other highlights included old mine brilliant-cut diamond ring of 12.02...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers reportedly sold $300m of rough at Sight 7 last week, after offering 10 per cent discounts to buyers.It signals the start of a recovery after its sales for the whole of Q2 fell 96 per cent to just $56m.The miner sold $551m of uncut gems at its February Sight, the last before the pandemic took hold globally and decimated demand.De Beers, which sells a quarter of the world�...Read More
RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, September 1, 2020, Las Vegas... Diamond markets improved in August as governments eased Covid-19 restrictions and dealers sought to fill specific orders from jewelers. Indian manufacturers increased polished production to fill shortages in certain categories. Polished prices firmed. The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?) for 1-carat diamonds rose 3.2% in August. It has fallen...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has unearthed a high-quality, 233-carat, type II diamond from its Let??eng mine in Lesotho, the company said TuesdayThe discovery is the fifth rough stone over 100 carats that Let??eng has yielded this year, according to Rapaport records. It follows that of a 442-carat, type II diamond that was recovered on August 23, the company said Tuesday. That stone is one of the larg...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales of jewelry and other luxury items in Hong Kong plunged in Julyamid a continued lack of tourism and a resurgence in coronavirus cases.Revenue from jewelry, watches, clocks and other valuable gifts slid 54% year on year to HKD 2.55 billion ($328.5 million) for the month. While the figure was an improvement over the previous month, the lingering effects on the trade continued to be...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Hong Kong show usually scheduled for September will take place in an online-only format this year due to the coronavirus.Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong, formerly the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, was initially rescheduled to November because of the pandemic. However, organizer Informa Markets has now canceled the physical event entirely, and will inst...Read More
RAPAPORT... Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS) held its first live tender of rough diamonds in Dubai since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with participation from nearly 100 companies.TAGS presented "high-quality" rough from mines in South Africa, Angola and Namibia worth approximately $30 million to $35 million, it said Tuesday. Some 90% of those goods sold by value. TAGS held its last live t...Read More