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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (35745)	12/20/1999 11:37:00 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Diamonds are forever..forever.......Diamonds have not lost their sparkle for the millennium. The South African diamond house, De Beers, has announced its biggest ever diamond sales in 1999, showing an increase of almost 60% on sales in 1998. De Beers says its diamond sales this year amounted to $5.25bn, up $1bn from the previous record. A spokeswoman for De Beers attributed the huge increase in gem sales to the attraction of diamonds as a millennium gift. Boost for company The record sales are a welcome boost to De Beers, which was rocked by the Asian crisis in 1998, and the company's shares surged on the Johannesburg stock market. Japan, once the biggest buyer, has been replaced by the United States, which is responsible for almost half of all De Beers' diamond sales over the past year. The booming US stock market has boosted sales, especially over the key Thanksgiving to Christmas period. A spokeswoman for the diamond house said that an aggressive marketing campaign promoting diamonds as 'the gift for the millennium' had helped sales this year - and interest was expected to continue into the year 2000. She said that De Beers had deliberately held back on its diamond supply after the slump in sales in 1998, in an attempt to revitalise the market. That strategy appears to have been successful. De Beers spends $170m a year advertising diamonds. Glut on the market Despite the heavy sales there is still a worldwide glut in diamonds and mine production has not increased as a result of the renewed interest in the gem. "We have been fairly prudent .. we could have sold more because there is still unrequited demand in the cutting centres," De Beers managing director Gary Ralfe said. Diamond houses like De Beers hope that by regulating supplies of the market, they can reduce stockpiles and preserve the diamond's position as one of the most sought after gems in history. De Beers alone controls 75% of the world's diamond supply. It has deals with countries like Angola and Russia to ensure that they do not sell their gems independently on the market. Search BBC News Online Advanced search options BBC ONE TV NEWS WORLD NEWS SUMMARY See also: 02 Dec 99 \| Business Diamond market finds its sparkle 04 Nov 98 \| The Company File Russia's diamond deal 07 Dec 99 \| From Our Own Correspondent Cleaning up the diamond badlands 06 Oct 99 \| Africa UK welcomes Angola diamond ban Internet links: Diamond Information Centre The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Links to other Business stories are at the foot of the page.