New York – With demand weak both last month and in the first quarter of the year, the price of polished diamonds of all sizes were down in March, according to Rapaport’s RapNet Diamond Index.
The RAPI for 1-carat laboratory-graded diamonds fell 3 percent in March, while the RAPI for 0.30-carat diamonds and half-carat stones declined by 2 percent.
The RAPI for 3-carat diamonds also was down 2 percent during the month.
The Rapaport Group said that the diamond market sentiment was weak during the first quarter of the year, with jewelry retailers steering clear of large inventory purchases and instead buying for a specific demand to fill existing orders.
During the first three months of 2015, the RAPI for 1-carat diamonds was flat but also continued to be 14 percent below the levels recorded at this time last year, as prices have been on a steady and constant decrease since the second quarter of 2014.
Rapaport’s Monthly Report for April, “Reducing Inventory,” states that retailers were mostly absent from the polished market during the first quarter, and that polished dealers were focused more on buying polished than manufacturing rough as they worked to get rid of their polished inventory.
