Healthcare-related stocks and the life sciences sector on the TSX Venture are flying high right now.

As commodity prices continued to weaken in the month of March, numerous healthcare-related stocks have broken out to new all-time highs on the Venture exchange.

At 10:27 AM EDT on Monday morning, 4 of the 10 most liquid stocks on the TSX Venture were healthcare-related. This is unprecedented on an exchange where the total listed issuers of Life Sciences companies represent only approximately 4%.

Retail investors gobble up healthcare-related equities on the TSX Venture

 

Sirona Biochem, Vanc Pharmaceuticals, Patient Home Monitoring and Convalo Health were leading the liquidity surge for TSX Venture listed healthcare-related stocks Monday morning.

Note: Unlike many of the mining and oil gas stocks, which crept into the top ten most liquid stocks on the TSX Venture this morning, the aforementioned healthcare-related stocks are not trading near all-time lows.

Healthcare aside, the below stocks were among the ten most liquid (by volume) on the TSX Venture, and traded at these prices at 10:27 AM EDT Monday morning:

  • Iona Energy traded at $0.01 (2nd most liquid)
  • Goldrush Resources traded at $0.015 (5th most liquid)
  • Huntington Exploration traded at $0.01 (6th most liquid)
  • Gold Bullion Development traded at $0.04 (10th most liquid)
  • Foran Mining traded at $0.20 (9th most liquid)

Healthcare-related stocks trade heavy volume on TSX Venture

 

Sirona Biochem Corp. (SBM:TSXV) was the most liquid stock on the TSX Venture exchange early this morning.

In a March 4th press release the company announced that “Wanbang Biopharmaceuticals has successfully completed the toxicology study in the pre-clinical validation of its anti-diabetic SGLT2 Inhibitor, SBM-TFC-039, for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.”

Investors have been wrapping their minds around what this could mean for the past few days.

The company also reported in that same press release that, “The completion of this test will trigger a milestone payment to Sirona from Wanbang Biopharmaceuticals as part of the $9.5M in upfront and milestone payments.”

Click here to read the entire press release.

*Sirona closed at $0.12 on January 30th 2015 and is up more than 60% since then to a high of $0.185 hit today.

 

Vanc Pharmaceuticals (NPH:TSXV) was the 3rd most liquid stock on the TSX Venture Monday morning. Its shares were up 11.3% to $0.49 per share on 1.7 million traded by 10:27 AM EDT.

We have written about Vanc numerous times in the past few weeks. Our most recent article from March 6th, titled VANC Pharmaceuticals doubles in less than a month.

On February 24th the company announced that it has received confirmation from the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Health approving 14 of the Company’s generic molecules under the Low Cost Alternative (LCA) program.

*Vanc Pharmaceuticals closed at $0.185 per share on January 30th. The stock is now up well over 100% in little over a month.

Patient Home Monitoring Corp. (PHM:TSXV) was the 7th most liquid stock on the TSX Venture Monday morning, having traded well north of $1 million worth of its stock in the very early going.

This healthcare company, which has been on an acquisition binge for months, needs no introduction. It is routinely among the most liquid stocks on the entire exchange. The stock is up some 500% year over year.

Check out our report from way back in August of 2014, titled Patient Home Monitoring capitalizes on aging baby-boomers.

Pinnacle members were hip to Patient Home Monitoring years ago. Long-time member ‘biobilly‘ selected the company for September’s Stock Challenge… of 2013.

Patient Home Monitoring is up well over 500% since then as its market cap swelled to roughly $246 million Monday morning.

On February 20th, Patient Home Monitoring announced it has been named the top company in the technology/life sciences sector of the TSX Venture 50 Index.

PHM has recently announced two LOI’s to acquire healthcare businesses in Virginia and Colorado. The company also announced record quarterly revenue for Q1 FY2015.

*Patient Home Monitoring closed at $0.98 on January 30th. The stock is up more than 20% in less than 2 months.

 

Convalo Health International (CXV:TSXV) was the 8th most liquid stock on the TSX Venture in early morning trading Monday.

Convalo, based in Los Angeles, plans on becoming an acquisition-oriented company focused on rolling up the US addiction rehabilitation market.

According to Convalo, it is the only publicly traded stock on the TSX Venture that services the addiction market.

Our most recent article on Convalo Health is from February 25th, 2015 and was titled Service providers are hip on TSX Venture: Convalo Health hits new 52-week high. Below is a short excerpt.

“Convalo Health has traded 52 million shares between $0.25 and $0.385 since then.

The total value of shares traded now eclipses $15 million in just 7 trading days. This is impressive for any TSX Venture company.

The stock hit a new all-time high of $0.385 this morning.

Convalo is up over 50% from February 17th, the same day we issued our first article on the company.”

Click here to read more.

 

*Since going public on February 17th, Convalo has increased over 20% in value. Its stock has traded more than 75 million shares since then.

Life Sciences Sector trumps Mining Sector, pound for pound

 

The Life Sciences sector on the TSX Venture continues to heat up as investors search for diversification on a still heavily weighted mining exchange.

According to a recent MiG Report, as at January 31, 2015, the Life Sciences sector had 77 listed issuers, comprising 4% of the total listed issuers on the TSX Venture.

These Life Sciences issuers had a total market cap of approximately $1.69 billion – 6% of the total market cap of listed issuers on the TSX Venture.

Mining companies totalled 1,197 and comprised 61% of the listed issuers on the exchange as of January 31, 2015. Disproportionately, the total market cap that the mining sector contributes to the TSX Venture is 37%. Remember that the Life Sciences sector increased its total market cap contribution by 50%, to 6%, in comparison to the total number of issuers it contributes at just 4%.

The Mining sectors’ 37% representation of the TSX Venture’s total market cap equated to $9.81 billion at January 31, 2015, according to the recent MiG Report.

Since the end of January, mining stocks have declined in value while many of the top healthcare and life sciences companies, as we’ve seen in this article, have advanced.

As an example, the Market Vectors® Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) hit a low of $22.54 Monday morning, just $1 from its all-time low of $21.40 hit in December of 2014.

Consider the increase in market cap from January 31, 2015 of just the 4 healthcare-related stocks mentioned in this article.

Retail investors embrace healthcare-related equities on TSX Venture

 

These ratios on the TSX Venture, in regards to the number of total issuers and the total market capitalization contribution, will be very interesting to monitor and evaluate in the coming months. Retail investors on the TSX Venture are continuing to vote with their wallets as stocks such as Convalo Health and Patient Home Monitoring recently hit new all-time highs.

 

 

This article represents solely the opinions of Alexander Smith. Alexander Smith is not an investment advisor and any reference to specific securities in the list referred to in the article does not constitute a recommendation thereof. Readers are encouraged to consult their investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions. The information in this article is of an impersonal nature and should not be construed as individualized advice or investment recommendations.

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