Every month we look at the top funds, stocks and trusts that form investors’ portfolios.
US stocks were popular in December and continued to be popular in January. And investors are still hungry for tech with Tesla, Nvidia and MicroStrategy still top picks for DIY investors.
When it comes to fund picks, the Royal London Short-Term Money Market fund is still the most popular alongside Vanguard’s S&P 500 Ucits ETF for index funds.
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For trusts, investors remain loyal to Scottish Mortgage, which also sits firmly on MoneyWeek's portfolio of investment Trusts.
But what other stocks, funds and trusts are investors out of love with and what is drawing in attention? Using data from investment platform interactive investor (ii), here are the top investments made in the last month.
Most popular funds
While Deepseek may have caused a bit of a wobble among tech stocks, investors have not lost their appetite for specialist technology fund exposure, with three of the most popular active funds focusing on tech.
“Investors owning a US index fund or ETF will already have sizeable exposure to so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. However, it is interesting to see that investors have also been looking to cast their nets wider, with two open-ended active funds that invest in US shares featuring: Artemis US Smaller Companies and Baillie Gifford American,” Kyle Caldwell, funds and investment education editor at ii, said.
“Elsewhere, investors continue to seek out income opportunities. Royal London Short Term Money Market tops our most-bought open-ended active fund table. It costs just 0.1% a year, and has a yield of 4.8% (as of 31 December 2024). Money market funds own a diversified basket of safe bonds that are due to mature soon, normally within just a couple of months, as well as cash deposits and other short-term savings instruments, meaning that investors can earn an income on their cash with minimal risk.
Top 10 active open-ended funds
- Royal London Short Term Money Market
- Artemis US Smaller Companies
- Fundsmith Equity
- Jupiter India
- WS Blue Whale Growth
- Fidelity Global Technology
- Baillie Gifford American
- Sanlam Global Artificial Intelligence
- Janus Henderson Global Technology Leaders
- Artemis Global Income
Top 10 most purchased index funds or ETFs
- Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF
- L&G Global Technology Index Trust
- Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity Fund
- iShares Physical Gold ETF
- Fidelity Index World
- iShares Core MSCI World UCTIS ETF
- Vanguard US Equity Index
- HSBC FTSE All-World Index
- Invesco EQQQ Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF
- Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund
Most popular trusts
Scottish Mortgage continued to be the most purchased trust, especially with its exposure to tech; those featuring in its top 10 holdings include Nvidia, Tesla, Meta and ASML Holdings.
“Income-seeking investors have also been looking to take advantage of the high yields and hopes of a recovery playing out for real estate investment trusts, with Assura and Supermarket Income both entering the trust top 10 table. The duo yield around 9%. Two income favourites also featuring in the top 10 are Greencoat UK Wind and City of London,” Caldwell added.
Top 10 most purchased trusts
- Scottish Mortgage
- Greencoat UK Wind
- JP Morgan Global Growth & Income
- Assura Plc
- Polar Capital Technology Trust
- F&C Investment Trust
- Alliance Witan
- Supermarket Income REIT
- Pershing Square Holdings
- City of London
Most popular stocks
With the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House and the introduction of tariffs, not to mention the disruption caused by Deepseek, may have caused more volatility, investors were not put off tech, so it's no surprise Nvidia was the most purchased stock in January.
“Nvidia topped the list during a month which saw some untypical weakness given the DeepSeek threat. The shares lost over 13% during the month, although remaining up by 73% over the last year and indeed 470% over the last two. MicroStrategy, a stock which is effectively a highly-leveraged play on Bitcoin gained another 12% in January as investors sought to ride the wave of the cryptocurrency trend, in addition to being seen as a beneficiary of lower regulation in the new regime,” Richard Hunter, head of markets at ii, commented.
“Momentum was also in evidence for other stocks on the list, such as Rolls-Royce and British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines, whose shares have risen by 90% and 130% respectively over the last year.
Income-seeking investors were also pulled toward the likes of Taylor Wimpey (dividend yield 8%) and Legal & General (8.5%).
Top 10 most purchased stocks
- Nvidia
- MicroStrategy
- Tesla
- Taylor Wimpey
- Rolls Royce
- Glencore
- easyJet
- Legal & General
- IAG
- Palantir Technology
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