Tech giants Alphabet, Meta and Amazon all featured in the list of the 10 most popular stocks to buy last week. So which other stocks were UK investors keen to get their hands on? And which stocks were offloaded in big numbers? Let’s take a look.
What were the most popular stocks to buy last week?
According to Hargreaves Lansdown, the three most popular stocks among its UK investors last week included Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, Lloyds Banking Group and iShares.
Let’s take a look at these companies in more detail.
1. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust plc
Scottish Mortgage is an actively managed investment trust that invests in a global portfolio of companies. Last week, buys in the mortgage trust accounted for 3.65% of total stocks traded.
Over the past seven days, the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust’s share price fell slightly from 1079p to 1075p. However, the trust has seen its share price plummet by over 10% in the past month.
2. Lloyds Banking Group plc
Lloyds Banking Group is mostly known for its retail banking arm, which has over 30 million customers. Buys in the banking group accounted for 3.18% of total trades last week.
Lloyds’ share price has risen slightly over the past week from 51.05p to 52.07p.
3. iShares plc
iShares plc is a collection of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are managed by investment management company BlackRock.
The iShares plc share price fell slightly last week. Seven days ago, its share price was 2060p compared with 2045p on Monday morning.
What other stocks were popular with UK investors last week?
Aside from the top three, other popular buys among Hargreaves Lansdown’s UK investors last week included Tesla, Meta (the new name for Facebook), Amazon, Alphabet (owner of Google), and BP. Here’s the top ten list in full:
| Company | Sector | % of stocks traded | |
| 1 | Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust | Mortgages | 3.65 |
| 2 | Lloyds Banking Group plc | Banking | 3.18 |
| 3 | iShares plc | ETF funds | 1.81 |
| 4 | Glencore plc | Commodity trading | 1.69 |
| 5 | Tesla Inc | Car manufacturing | 1.61 |
| 6 | Meta Platforms Inc | Tech | 1.61 |
| 7 | Amazon.com Inc | Tech | 1.46 |
| 8 | Invesco Markets plc | Investment management | 1.01 |
| 9 | Alphabet Inc | Tech | 0.98 |
| 10 | BP plc | Oil and gas | 0.92 |
Which stocks did UK investors sell last week?
Now we’ve looked at the most popular buys, here are the stocks that UK investors offloaded last week:
| Company | Sector | % of stocks traded | |
| 1 | Hargreaves Lansdown plc | Investing | 5.76 |
| 2 | iShares plc | ETF funds | 2.95 |
| 3 | Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust | Mortgages | 2.38 |
| 4 | Lloyds Banking Group plc | Banking | 2.36 |
| 5 | Shell plc | Oil and gas | 2.3 |
| 6 | Glencore plc | Commodity trading | 2.23 |
| 7 | Vodafone Group plc | Telecommunications | 2.01 |
| 8 | BP plc | Oil and gas | 1.74 |
| 9 | Tesla Inc | Car manufacturing | 1.4 |
| 10 | WisdomTree | Fund management | 1.13 |
What can we learn from this data?
It’s interesting to note that tech stocks were particularly popular last week. Amazon’s stock price rocketed by over 13% in a single day last week. This sharp movement in price is reported to have earned its founder, Jeff Bezos, a cool $19 billion. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s share price increased by a healthy 6% last week.
The strong performance of Amazon and Alphabet’s share prices over the past week is likely to have persuaded many investors to jump on the bandwagon.
In contrast, Meta’s share price has plummeted over the past few days following the revelation that the number of Facebook users is declining. In the past five days alone, Meta’s share price is down a massive 21%. Despite this, the stock was the sixth most popular share to buy last week. This signals that many UK investors believe the stock is currently undervalued.
Interestingly, a number of companies that featured on the most popular shares to buy also featured on the list of the most popular shares to sell. This suggests that these shares are popular with active investors.
That’s because active investors, including day traders, often seek to make a quick buck out of short-term stock fluctuations. Yet making a profit out of this strategy is often far more difficult than it seems. For more on this, see our article that looks at passive vs active investing.
Are you looking to invest?
While it can be interesting to look into popular stock buys among UK investors, it’s important to remember that past performance is no guarantee of future returns.
If you’re new to investing, take a look at The Motley Fool’s investing basics to put yourself on the right path. And if you’re ready to invest, see our list of top-rated share dealing accounts.
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About the author
Karl is a writer specialising in investing and personal finance content. He regularly contributes articles on savings, bank accounts, mortgages, and loans. He was previously a Personal Finance Writer for MoneySavingExpert.
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