Early Diwali boosts Anglo American's De Beers rough diamond sales

De Beers has completed an improved sixth rough diamond sales cycle of the year, parent company Anglo American said on Tuesday.

Global sightholder sales and auction sales hit $572m, an 8% improvement on the same period last year thanks to an earlier Diwali festival lifting sales in India.

The sixth De Beers cycle of 2017 was also up almost 6% on the fifth, when there had been a 6% year-on-year decline.

Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers, said: "The sixth sales cycle of the year maintained the trend of consistently good demand for De Beers rough diamonds across the product range.

"With Diwali being earlier than normal in 2017, we saw some demand from Indian diamantaires pulled forward from Sight 7. This was due to these customers needing to make rough diamond purchases in sufficient time to complete their polishing before the holiday begins."