ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Wake me up when September ends

For many decades September has been the worst month of the year for global stocks, on average.

Theories abound, but no one really knows why the ‘September Effect’ exists.

This year, September was about the time that five months of rampant global market enthusiasm began to wane.

The major Wall Street indexes recorded their first monthly declines since March, as did our own benchmark ASX200.

The amount of cash raised on the ASX in September — $2.28bn — was also less than half of August’s total.

But it’s October now — Is the worst over? r/wallstreetbets has theory.

Secret message in ‘Wake me up when September ends” from r/wallstreetbets

To Markets…

Despite a positive session on Wall Street, the ASX200 started Friday’s session in the red, down 56 points, or 0.96 per cent, to 5,816 points by 12pm AEST.

Materials, energy and healthcare are declining most, with IT and property advancing, according to CommSec.

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Friday, October 2:

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

CODE	NAME	PRICE	% CHANGE	MARKET CAP
RAN	Range International	0.024	71	$ 5,059,200.22
CCE	Carnegie Clean Energy	0.0015	50	$ 11,141,452.45
MPP	Metro Performance Glass	0.295	48	$ 37,075,617.20
PPY	Papyrus Australia	0.019	36	$ 4,232,815.99
OEX	Oilex	0.002	33	$ 6,179,445.00
CFO	Cfoam	0.031	24	$ 4,804,350.65
TAO	TAO Commodities	0.27	20	$ 7,062,000.08
MLS	Metals Australia	0.003	20	$ 9,120,881.94
PUR	Pursuit Minerals	0.012	20	$ 4,801,093.16
VRC	Volt Resources	0.012	20	$ 20,205,553.73
JAY	Jayride Group	0.19	19	$ 16,816,362.24
ADY	Admiralty Resources	0.019	19	$ 18,546,155.18
ENV	Enova Mining	0.026	18	$ 7,450,494.57
RWD	Reward Minerals	0.165	18	$ 22,763,447.98
BUY	Bounty Oil & Gas	0.02	18	$ 18,638,816.69
EMT	Emetals	0.021	17	$ 7,203,600.00
CE1	Calima Energy	0.007	17	$ 13,004,845.36
YPB	YPB Group	0.0035	17	$ 8,777,467.85
NC6	Nanollose	0.092	16	$ 8,354,249.29
NML	Navarre Minerals	0.185	16	$ 86,790,744.16
OTW	Over The Wire	4.91	15	$ 220,031,377.08

Banana frond textile maker Papyrus (ASX:PPY) gained a new strategic investor and the share price went … nuts.

The $500,000 investment by small cap fund L39 Capital was done at a 25 per cent discount to the 15 day volume weighted average price, but that didn’t stop the stock surging 36 per cent in morning trade.

Former $3m market cap minnow Tao Commodities (ASX:TAO) has continued to rise after inking an option to buy the ‘Titan’ titanium and zircon mineral sands project in the US. The stock is now up 130 per cent since the middle of September.

Explorers Volt Resources (ASX:VRC) and Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) have bounced back from failed gold project acquisition deals.

LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Friday, October 2:

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

CODE	COMPANY	PRICE	% CHANGE	MARKET CAP
CML	Chase Mining	0.015	-53	$ 10,198,476.83
MSB	Mesoblast	3.37	-34	$ 2,979,860,842.40
ANW	Aus Tin Mining	0.001	-33	$ 5,161,327.76
ECT	Env Clean Tech	0.001	-33	$ 14,401,549.18
NWM	Norwest Minerals	0.105	-32	$ 9,138,964.15
CLZ	Classic Minerals	0.0015	-25	$ 26,084,103.96
PSL	Paterson Resources	0.003	-25	$ 16,013,417.82
QFY	Quantify Tech	0.0015	-25	$ 4,017,099.49
NME	Nex Metals Exploration	0.058	-19	$ 17,343,938.23
PGY	Pilot Energy	0.029	-17	$ 3,707,514.09
BUX	Buxton Resources	0.075	-17	$ 12,244,988.88
GWR	GWR Group	0.185	-16	$ 56,033,168.18
BEM	Blackearth Minerals	0.055	-15	$ 7,387,608.87
BSM	Bass Metals	0.003	-14	$ 13,747,565.07
GLA	Gladiator Resources	0.003	-14	$ 8,147,419.60
KEY	KEY Petroleum	0.006	-14	$ 13,775,496.88
ARO	Astro Resources	0.007	-13	$ 11,703,295.30
HYD	Hydrix	0.033	-11	$ 46,573,072.90
RLG	Roolife Group	0.026	-10	$ 11,502,678.23