February 10 (Reuters) – Shares of marijuana companies increased on Wednesday, extending for a month-high due to bets on decriminalization under the Biden government, while the Reddit business community behind a recent frenzy commercial, promoted the actions.
A post on WallStreetBets, the Reddit forum linked to last month’s outbreaks on GameStop Corp, AMC Entertainment and others, told users that the shares of producers Tilray Inc and Aphria Inc have more room to rise.
This post was appreciated by around 10,000 other users in just 12 hours and the shares of the two companies increased by 21% and 10%, respectively.
The US listed stocks of the largest marijuana producer Canopy Growth Corp rose 3% after the results on Tuesday, while the marijuana stock tracker ETFMG, which has more than doubled since the November presidential election, gained 7.3 %.
Tilray, being acquired by Aphria in a complicated reverse merger, has gained more than 400% in value since the deal was announced in December. Aphria gained 243% in the same period.
The actions of other cannabis producers have also reached record levels, helped by a wave of legalization in major US states and the Democratic Party’s promise to decriminalize the plant at the federal level.
The changes promised by some in President Joe Biden’s party could help give cannabis companies access to more traditional methods of banking and open the sector to new institutional investors. (Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Patrick Graham edition)