German retail investors catch cannabis trading frenzy

MILAN: Cannabis stocks were among the most traded by German retail investors on Thursday, signalling that a buying frenzy that has lit up the sector was spreading beyond its American home base.

Tilray was the most traded stock on German trading platform Lang & Schwarz with over 2.2 million euros (US$2.7 million) in turnover by 1001 GMT, well ahead of heavyweights Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank.

Other pot stocks Sundial Growers and Aurora Cannabis also featured among the buzzy stocks on the platform, reflecting high interest from retail investors, traders said.

"It's the Reddit army and friends," said Stefan de Schutter, portfolio manager and Alpha Trading in Frankfurt.

Interest in those stocks got a big boost this week after users on the popular WallStreetBets forum on Reddit turned their focus on the sector on expectations of lighter regulation under U.S. President Joe Biden's administration.

Shares of Tilray jumped more than 50per cent on Wall Street on Wednesday, while in Toronto Sundial and Aurora jumped 78per cent and 21per cent respectively.

Swaggystocks, which aggregates sentiment on shares talked about in the WallStreetBets forum, showed Sundial and Tilray were most upvoted, or highly touted, stocks in the group, which has around 8 million participants.

The U.S. listed shares in Tilray and Sundial were up 14per cent and 40per cent respectively in early U.S. premarket trading following their rally on Wednesday.

The fresh interest into the sector has helped cannabis-focused exchange traded funds (ETFs) reach new highs. Some of them more than doubling in value over the last month.

Graphics: Cannabis ETFs - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/jbyvrdlaove/Potper cent20inspiration.PNG

(Reporting by Danilo Masoni; editing by Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Kim Coghill)