January was such a big month for the Australian stockmarket that listed companies raised 3.5 times more than they did in January 2017, the ASX reports.

While February has so far proved to be a challenge for investors, it’s useful to remember just how hot the sharemarket was running earlier this year.

Listed companies raised a total of $2.6 billion from investors in cash and scrip in January, compared to $754 million in the same month the year before.

When you add the amount raised by the 12 companies that listed in January (compared to nine in 2017), that figure rises to $2.8 billion — up 230 per cent on last year.

The ASX Small Ordinaries saw a small dip in mid-January but recovered - only to be smashed on the last day. Pic: Google Finance
The ASX Small Ordinaries saw a small dip in mid-January but recovered – only to be smashed on the last day. Pic: Google Finance

Investors were happy to skip their holidays and make hay while the sun shone, too.

They made 22.7 billion trades during the month worth $86.4 billion, which worked out to be an average of just over 1 million every day.

But in spite of the excitement, investors were spending less per trade than they did in January 2017.

The average value of a single trade was $3805, a 14 per cent dip from the amounts people were willing to spend in January last year.

The extra activity also meant the ASX’s compliance team were working hard through the hot summer days as well.

Almost double the number of companies were suspended from trading, with 32 sent to the doghouse (not including those like Manalto (ASX:MTL) or iCandy Interactive (ASX:ICI) which never made it back onto the bourse in January).