Most companies which listed on the Australian share market in 2018 "performed poorly", and the outlook for this year is looking rather downbeat.

Half of the 93 businesses which floated last year lost, on average, 18 per cent of their value — with a quarter suffering losses of 50 per cent or more.

Those were the key findings of an "IPO Watch Australia" report, released today by accounting and advisory firm HLB Mann Judd.

2018 was a year of extreme volatility, particularly in the final quarter, as Asian markets, Wall Street (briefly) and oil prices fell into a bear market, plummeting 20 per cent from their peak prices.

This coincided with the United States and China escalating their trade war, the Federal Reserve raising US interest rates, and a surge in value for the US greenback.

Only 20 out of the 93 companies which listed on the ASX in 2018 ended the year on a stronger note.

"This is a worse performance than other market indicators, with the ASX 200 recording a decrease of 7 per cent for the calendar year," said HLM partner Marcus Ohm.

He also said there is likely to be a fall in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the next half-year.

"Unsurprisingly only 17 companies had applied to list on the ASX at the end of 2018, well down on the 37 that had applied at the same time in the previous year," he said.

"The companies that have applied are hoping to raise $179 million, which is a 70 per cent reduction on the $603 million sought at the end of 2017."

Mr Ohm also said that more than a quarter of companies attempting to list publicly last year failed in their attempts because they were unable to raise enough capital.

"Only 72 per cent of all new listings were able to meet their target," he said.

He explained this was "down on both the 2017 and 2016 years, which saw 79 per cent and 83 per cent of targets met respectively."

Best and worst performers

Of the "large cap" stocks which debuted on the local share market, hemp oil producer Elixinol Global was the best performer, according to HLM.

Elixinol's stock jumped 150 per cent to finish the year at $2.50 per share, since it debuted on the ASX in early-2018.

Mr Ohm said only three large cap stocks ended the year higher, with the other two only posting gains of 7 per cent or lower.

HLM's report said the three largest IPOs last year were Viva Energy (an oil company), Coronado Global Resources (a coal producer) and L1 Long Short Fund (an investment firm).

Collectively, they raised $4.75 billion between them, and accounted for 64 per cent of the total funds raised from IPOs last year.

The best-performing newly-listed companies were in the consumer durables and apparel segment, as their share prices soared 96 per cent since their debuts.

The next-best-performing segments were household and personal products (+87pc) and pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and life sciences (+54pc).

On the flipside, the worst performers among the stocks which floated last year were telecommunications (-60pc), consumer services (-42pc), technology, hardware and equipment (-35pc) and diversified financials (-32pc).

Materials was the sector which had the most listings (35), and represented 38 per cent of all IPOs.

However, newly listed materials companies underperformed as they finished the year, on average, 26 per cent lower than the price at which they were initially listed.

More than half the listings in that sector were gold projects (60pc). There were also a significant number of copper (23pc) and cobalt (14pc) listings.

The number of large-cap company listings (over $100 million market cap) continued to fall in 2018, and was down from 39 in 2014 to 21 in 2018.