The North American cannabis index has taken a tumble today, falling by nearly 8 points or -2.93% in the last 24 hours. Nearly all the companies listed on the North American Marijuana Index are in the red.
Today's fall is the biggest this week, but it also marks the first consistent drop since the end of February, which saw the market's poorest performance in 12 months. It plummeted -27.6% from January 31st to February 27th, before a rebound set things in a positive direction until today. It's not clear if one event, in particular, is causing the current drop, but news of Canada's delay in legalizing cannabis for recreational use across the country is hitting markets hard. In addition, Ottawa's public health agency is urging the province to ban the smoking of marijuana in condos, apartment, and balconies.
Whatever the reason, big players are not performing well. Canopy Growth Corp. (TSE:WEED), the largest company in the index by market cap, is down -2.43%, while main competitors Aurora (TSE:ACB) and Aphria (TSE:APH) are down -4.51% and -3.80% respectively. All three companies have market caps in excess of $2B CAD, so their weighting is sure to bring down the index as a whole. The only large-cap name on the list is GW Pharmaceuticals Plc., which is up 3.21%, bringing its market cap to $3.2B USD.
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So what should you do as an investor? Well it's not all doom and gloom! These four companies are performing strongly despite today's droop:
GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:GWPH)
Current price (USD): $115.64 | 24hr change: +3.21% | Year change: -7.38% | Market cap: $3.2B
As mentioned before, GW is the only major ($2B+ market cap) listing displaying growth on the index today. The British biopharmaceutical company is known for developing cannabis-based treatments for multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. One of its products, Sativex, is the world's first plant-derived cannabinoid prescription drug. It is successfully being used by the UK's National Health Service to alleviate multiple sclerosis symptoms. What makes GW Pharma stand out is that it has managed to develop and market cannabis-based drugs in a country which does not allow the medical use of cannabis. If this seems confusing, it's because it is. The company's growth today could be attributed to yesterday's reports that the UK is the world's largest producer and exporter of medical cannabis.
Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (CN:GLH)
Current price (CAD): $0.32 | 24hr change: +8.33% | Year change (only available from Jan 1st, 2018): -34.7% | Market cap: $177.2m
A consistently poor year performance for sure, but Golden Leaf are performing particularly strongly today. The Oregon-based company provides cannabis oil products and solutions. At the start of the year, the company announced the closure of its acquisition of Medical Marijuana Group Consulting Ltd. Since then, stocks have performed uninspiringly, but are on a positive upward curve from February 26th.
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CanniMed (TSE:CMED)
Current price (CAD): $39.14 | 24hr change: -2.63% | Year change: +257.1% | Market cap: $984.5m
If you're in any way interested in the cannabis industry, you will no doubt have heard of CanniMed in recent weeks. The medical cannabis company has performed shockingly well, with stocks boosted further when it was recently acquired by Aurora. Although it has been dragged down today, that stunning year performance doesn't lie; if you invested in CanniMed this time last year, you'd be laughing. With the recent release of its fast-acting Topical Cream, CanniMed is continuing to grow. Careful you don't miss out again.
Cannabix Technologies Inc. (CN:BLO)
Current price (CAD): $2.42 | 24hr change: -6.84% | Year change: +245.7% | Market cap: $227.7m
No, it's not a cannabis-based breakfast cereal. Cannabix develop tools for detecting marijuana evidence on breath, and are currently working on their cannabis breathalyzer for use in law enforcement and the workplace. In January the company was pleased to report an update that the development of their Beta 3.0 prototype device was complete. Although little news has surfaced since, the company saw strong stock performance towards the end of February and the beginning of March. In addition, their year performance is particularly enticing, proving the success that has come with being on the leading edge of FAIMS (Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry, if you must know) technology in relation to THC detection. If their technology becomes widely used by law enforcement, you'll probably want to be holding Cannabix stock when it does.
So there you go! Hopefully that will cheer gloomy investors up, as well as persuade potential buyers to be undeterred by today's unfortunate market performance.
Featured image: ProfitConfidential
