S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) slumps on NexOptic Technology Corp, St Jean Carbon Inc. Emblem Corp

S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) lost 1 percent on Wednesday as profit taking on NexOptic Technology Corp (CVE:NXO) and a race to the exits in Saint Jean Carbon Inc (CVE:SJL) brought the index down after a fairly promising start.

Offsetting the downside was a stellar first day of trading by The Hypothecary Corporation (CVE:THCX) which finished the day up $0.80, or a handy double to close at $1.55 on 3.6 million shares traded. Aphria Inc. (CVE:APH) also turned in a solid performance levitating by $0.12 on the day to close at $6.39 on volume of 1.8 million shares after it was prominently featured in not one but two press releases.

Aphria graduated to the TSX senior board, following Canopy Growth Corp (TSE:WEED) and CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. (TSE:CMED) becoming the third ACMPR-licensed grower of medical cannabis in Canada to grace that vaunted bourse.

Alongside that, Aphria announced it had signed agreements with Natural Health Services, a Calgary-based medical cannabis clinic chain that serves patients in Western Canada with medical consultation services to help patients seeking to become ACMPR-authorized consumers of cannabis in lieu of more harmful pharmaceuticals.

On the dark side of the index today, Saint Jean Carbon continued to suffer from an exodus of investors after continuing negative sentiment engulfed the company when the OSC demanded the company retract and reword a press release from March 3 that announced an “offtake” agreement with Panasonic Corporation (TYO:6752) to supply carbon graphite for lithium ion battery anodes.

Today the company issued a press release that essentially revealed the nominal nature of the order, and that it was not, in fact, part of an offtake order, but such an offtake order was under negotiation with Panasonic. A case of taking a tad too much liberty with language, apparently felt by the Exchange.

Saint Jean’s shares roared to a high of $0.35 – a near quintupling of its erstwhile price range around $0.07 – that seemed to be the harbinger of a new dawn for the company.

Panasonic fanned the flames of skepticism when it issued a notice to Saint Jean that “it will not sign the company’s proposed form of offtake agreement,” according to today’s press release. “When Panasonic reconfirmed its Order by email dated March 15, 2017, it also confirmed that in case of mass purchase of Anode Material from Saint Jean, Panasonic will do so under its own form of standard purchasing agreement,” it concluded.

Saint Jean Carbon shares closed down $0.07 to $0.09 on volume of ~24 million shares.

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