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Buds & Duds: Cannabis stocks continue their high bar; Valens GroWorks skyrockets

Published: 17:15 05 Sep 2018 EDT

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Cannabis stocks continued to fly high today, with gains from players including Valens GroWorks Corp (CSE:VGW), Cronos Group Inc (NASDAQ:CRON, TSE:CRON) and Namaste Technologies (CVE:N, OTCMKTS:NXTTF).

As the countdown to the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada continues in full swing for the next six weeks, stock prices continue to swing significantly.

Buds

Valens GroWorks shares rocketed as high as 48% on Wednesday before settling at C$2.00, up 37.9%. The company welcomed four new directors with backgrounds in finance and real estate development. The company also saw its shares rise after Mackie Research initiated a "buy" rating on Valens with a target price of C$4.50.

READ: Valens GroWorks shares surge after Mackie Research initiates with a Buy rating

Directors John Cullen and Robert O’Brien, also the company’s chief science officer, have made their exits.

"Given the company's aggressive vertically integrated expansion plans, both domestically and internationally, it was a top priority to strengthen our board of directors to support these initiatives," said Tyler Robson, Valens's chief executive officer.

Cronos Group Inc (NASDAQ:CRON, TSE:CRON) shares were up 11.7% at US$12.45 in New York and up 11.8% at C$16.38 in Toronto on the back of yesterday's mews it was partnering with Boston-based biotech Gingko Bioworks Inc to produce cultured cannabinoids or genetically engineer the active compounds in marijuana.

Namaste Technologies (CVE:N, OTCMKTS:NXTTF) ticked higher, up 7.8% at C$2.75 in Toronto and up 7.7% at US$2.07 in New York.

The Vancouver-based operator of the cannabis e-commerce platform announced it had reached a pair of partnership agreements with Breton CannaPharms Ltd.

READ: Namaste Technologies shares jump on new pair of partnerships with Breton CannaPharms Ltd

WeedMD Inc (CVE:WMD) announced some board changes and welcomed Michael Pesner, president of Hermitage Canada Finance Inc, as an independent director and chair of the audit committee. Bruce Dawson-Scully will be stepping down from the board of directors.

Shares of WeedMD were down slightly to C$2.04.

Duds

Detractors today included Vivo Cannabis Inc (OTCMKTS:VVCIF, CVE:VIVO), which was down 7.4% at C$1.74.

The company manufactures and distributes medical cannabis. Vivo announced yesterday that it has closed its acquisition of 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Canna Farms Limited located in Hope, British Columbia. Canna is a premium Licensed Producer of medical cannabis.

The North American Marijuana Index, a series of equally-weighted stock indices that track the leading cannabis stocks in the U.S. and Canada, reported that its North American Index was down 4.6% on Tuesday at $306.02.

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