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Buds & Duds: Cannabis stocks stumble on first trading day in March

Last updated: 12:35 01 Mar 2019 EST, First published: 11:42 01 Mar 2019 EST

cannabis plants
Tilray closed on its move to buy Manitoba Harvest, the world's largest hemp food manufacturer

Cannabis stocks looked poised to end the week on a disappointing note, with most of the major players in the US and Canada on the decline.

The North American Marijuana Index, which tracks leading cannabis stocks in the US and Canada, failed to keep pace with the gains on Wall Street and shed 1.3% to hit 290.50.

Buds

There were very few buds to choose from Friday, but 1933 Industries (CSE:TGIF) (OTCQX:TGIFF) made its way onto the list of gainers, adding 1.9% to hit C$0.53 in Canadian trade.

This week, the company released a new educational short film, The Dawn of a New Era, by documentary filmmaker Atlee James. The movie tells the story of weed from the dawn of civilization through its prohibition to the current trend pushing towards legalization.

Duds

The list of duds, meanwhile, was lengthy and included Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY), which reversed direction mid-morning and fell 2.55% to $79.24.

The Canadian cannabis behemoth announced late Thursday that it has closed on its move to pay C$419 million to buy Manitoba Harvest, a Winnipeg, Manitoba based company which bills itself as the world’s largest hemp food manufacturer.

The deal allows the cannabis company to forge ahead in the lucrative market for cannabidiol (CBD), which is derived from hemp plants as well as sell hemp foods and supplements.

Joining the laggards as well was Green Growth Brands Inc of Columbus, Ohio, which slipped by 3% to hit $3.60.

The company recently revealed its plans to set up 400 sales kiosks to market its CBD (cannabidiol) lotions and other sorts of products this year in malls and retailers like DSW stores, the shoe specialist.

CEO Peter Horvath also said this week that he remains committed to Green Growth’s all-stock hostile bid for its Canadian rival Aphria (NYSE:APHA).

Aphria last month rebuffed Green Growth’s bid, which put its value at roughly C$2.35 billion (US:$1.76 billion) on the view that it “significantly undervalued” the company and is “inadequate”. Green Growth offered Aphria stakeholders 1.5714 shares of Green Growth stock for each Aphria share.

Aphria shares were also among the duds and lost 2% to hover at $10.15.

Also trading lower on no reported news were Aurora Cannabis (TSE:ACB), which shed 1.4% to C$9.78; Curaleaf Holdings (CSE:CURA), which fell 2.8% to C$10.12; and MariMed Inc (OTCQB:MRMD), which dropped 2.6% to US$3.80.

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