Shares in major pot firms climbed in late trading Thursday after The Post reported on a Canadian study showing that certain strains of cannabis may help prevent COVID-19 from entering host cells.

Canadian pot giant Canopy Growth Corporation saw its stock jump 7.8 percent to close at $18.25 thanks to a spike in the final hour of trading. The shares had climbed another 0.5 percent in premarket trading Friday to $18.34 as of 9:19 a.m.

British Columbia-based Tilray’s shares also surged late to close up nearly 20 percent at $9.65, followed by a roughly 2 percent jump before Friday’s opening bell.

The ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF, an exchange-traded fund that targets the global cannabis industry, ended Thursday up 6 percent at $13.47 and climbed another 1.3 percent in premarket trading Friday.

And shares in Alberta-based Aurora Cannabis got a late boost to close up more than 36 percent Thursday at $17.40 after it announced it was buying American CBD firm Reliva. The stock was recently down 7.4 percent in premarket trading after Jeffries analysts reportedly cast doubt on the company’s short-term strength.

The research inspiring the boost showed that at least 13 cannabis plants could block proteins that create a “gateway” for the new coronavirus to enter host cells. The strains are all high in CBD — the anti-inflammatory found in some consumer products — and low in THC, the psychoactive component of pot, according to the findings.

But the study published in the online journal Preprints has not yet been peer-reviewed. It was carried out by cannabis research firms Pathway Rx and Swysh Inc.