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Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL) has spoken of a strong start to the year for the diamond market, with the company being paid around 10% more than this time last year for its stones.
The group said it expects diamond prices to remain at this level for the next three months.
Petra sold 36% more carats in the third quarter (905,781) than last year when it sold 668,193 carats.
It found buyers for seven ‘special’ stones, who paid over US$1mln for each in the third quarter – five from its Cullinan mine and two from Koffiefontein, both in South Africa.
That helped it rack up revenues of US$163.9mln - a rise of 55% - including the sale of the 29.6 carats blue diamond, which went for US$25.6mln.
Chief executive Johan Dippenaar said: “Petra continues to deliver further production and revenue growth, and these results demonstrate that the company is firmly on track to meet its full year target of circa 3 million carats.
“The diamond market has had an encouragingly strong start to 2014, further underpinning Petra's positive outlook for the remainder of the 2014 financial year.”
Broker Investec noted that the firm produced 743,000 carats in the third quarter - up 15% year-on-year, taking output to 2.379mln carats in the year so far.
It kept its 'buy' stance on the stock and its 194 pence price target.
Meanwhile, Westhouse said that, due to the improved market conditions, it had slightly increased its forecast prices for full year 2014, and raised its target price to 175p from 170p. It kept its 'add' rating.
Petra shares rose 3.3% on Wednesday to 155.6p.