With gold prices under pressure it may be time to turn to diamonds.
FTSE 250 company Petra Diamonds has announced it has found a 25.5 carat blue gem at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. Blue diamonds are apparently among the rarest and most highly coveted of diamonds, and Petra said the Cullinan mine the most important source of them in the world.
A 26.6 carat rough stone sold for $9.49m at Sotheby's in 2009, at the time the highest per carat price paid for a gemstone at auction. It was subsequently named Star of Josephine by its new owner. Since then a 10.48 carat was auctioned in November for $10.8m. Numis analysts said:
If [the 2009 sale] is anything to go by, a similar number may be expected to go straight to the bottom line. A nice result and potential to increase our 2013 earnings per share to 5 cents, from 3 cents.
Petra shares, which jumped nearly 5% initially, have lost some of their sparkle but are still up 1.4p at 109.1p, a1.3% rise.
