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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The S&P/TSX Cannabis Index added a fraction to 41.53, while the CSE Composite Index lost 8.59 to 279.08. Canadian cannabis sales notched another monthly record in April, according to new data from Statistics Canada. The agency estimated April's nationwide cannabis sales at $372.4-million. This is up from $359.2-million in March and up from the prior record of $355.4-million last October.

While April has one less day than March, something that often leads to sequential dips in other months, there is one day in April that can offset this calendrical quirk: the unofficial cannabis holiday known as 4/20. This occurs annually on April 20 and is the largest shopping day of the year for cannabis retailers. This year, the average Canadian cannabis store enjoyed a 65-per-cent jump in one-day sales on Wednesday, April 20, relative to the prior four Wednesdays, according to analytics firm Headset.

Not every province benefited from a 4/20 sales bump. Notably, while sales in Canada's largest market, Ontario, rose to $150.1-million in April from $144.8-million in March, sales in the third-largest market, British Columbia, actually fell to $52.8-million from $56.3-million. Sales in Ontario continue to benefit from more store openings. There were over 1,500 cannabis stores in Ontario in April, up from around 1,300 at the start of the year. By contrast, the store count in British Columbia has been relatively stable, rising to 436 in April from 426 at the start of the year.

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