Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): This is probably for the first time in recent history that auction of diamonds, excavated from the shallow mines of Panna, received the lukewarm response from jewellers and traders.
This could be gauged from the fact that out of 204 diamonds, only 34 were sold during three-day auction, which ended on Thursday.
The lukewarm response to auction has a distant connection with tumbling price of diamonds in international market.
Vikas Sharma of Panna who participated in diamond auction at Panna collectorate told Free Press that one of the reasons behind low sale of diamonds was that big diamond traders did not show interest as diamond prices have decreased in international market.
Normally, small traders purchase the diamonds in auction and sell them to big traders. The big traders then sell them in big markets and even abroad.
This time, big traders avoided placing any diamond. As a result, small traders remained in fix and desisted from purchasing diamonds.
Mayak Soni was who participated in bidding of diamonds did not purchase any. When contacted, Mayank Soni said price of diamond had gone down in international market.
Moreover, due to festive season, very few traders came from outside Madhya Pradesh to participate in auction. He said those who purchased diamonds earlier were finding difficult to sell them.
Panna diamond office said the estimated cost of 204 diamonds was Rs 3,54, 54,013 and of them, 34 diamonds were auctioned for Rs 94,08,759. By the rate of 11.5 per cent royalty, state exchequer received royalty of Rs 10,82,007.
