from stockwatch 2024-10-11 13:49 ET - Market Summary
by Will Purcell
Keep an eye as well on Mr. Zimnisky's chart, as he and fellow analysts may finally be right about demand for mined diamonds perking up. Mr. Zimnisky's index is now up 1.1 points over the past four weeks, a gain of 0.8 per cent from the early September low. Equally important, prices are now flat since mid-August, a seven-week plateau suggesting that perhaps the decade of gloom, if not doom, is over.
That would be good news for Dermot Desmond and his fellow shareholders of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPVD). The company's stock, $7 eight years ago when mining started at its 49-per-cent-owned Gahcho Kue operation in the Northwest Territories, slid to an August low of 10.5 cents. It has since inched higher, although it dipped one cent to 14 cents on 39,000 shares today, but it could be a prime candidate for tax-loss selling in the weeks ahead should the rough diamond price rally falter.
Mountain Province is also due to reveal the preliminary data from its third quarter. The company typically rolls out the results of its mining and sales performance within a few weeks after the end of each quarter, with the detailed quarterly reports to follow. All eyes will be on the preliminary report, as investors look for an improved grade over the expected-but-disappointing drop noted in the second quarter, while gazing carefully at the average sales price of the diamonds Mountain Province sold in its two third quarter auctions. And so, stay tuned -- that news could come any day now.