10 hottest ISA shares, funds and trusts: week ended 4 April 2025

We look at the investments ii customers have been buying within their ISAs during the previous week. The data includes only real-time trades, not regular investing instructions, and combines the use of both existing funds and new money.

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Top 10 shares in ISAs

A two-day sell-off the scale of which has not been seen since the Covid crash, triggered bargain hunting toward the end of the week. Prices paid may turn out to be good value on a longer-term view, although near term there is risk of further volatility.

After a one-month absence, BP (LSE:BP.) returns to this list of top 10 stocks bought in ISAs on the ii platform in the past week. Investors are clearly attracted at levels not seen since summer 2022. That’s a big shift in sentiment for a stock that hit a seven-month high in February.

As well as the turnaround in broader equity markets, the FTSE 350 oil sector fell more than 12% last week as the price of crude slumped to a four-year low. The big fear is that trade tensions between the US, China and others trigger a global recession and subsequent decline in demand.

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Miners were in trouble too for much the same reasons. It meant Rio Tinto Ordinary Shares (LSE:RIO), which last appeared in this list at the end of February, sank close to a five-year low. Factoring in latest losses puts the dividend yield above 7%, which might be a magnet for income seekers with a diversified portfolio.

Barclays (LSE:BARC) spent a couple of weeks outside the top 10 but is back this time at number four. Investors were clearly interested in picking up stock at a five-month low following a 15% share price slump over the week. That’s slightly more than the FTSE 350 bank sector, which lost 13.5%.

Tariff losses have been larger for bank stocks because they’d outperformed the wider market year-to-date, adding 15% in 2025 up to the close of business on 2 April. By comparison, the FTSE 100 index had added 5%. It meant the sector was among those that had priced in least macroeconomic threats.

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) is also back in the list having spent the previous week in 13th place. Its shares have outperformed rivals in 2025 following a recovery from October’s sell-off on concerns about the car loan mis-selling scandal. Up a third this year prior to the tariff crash, Lloyds stock tumbled 11% last week.

Top 10 funds and trusts in ISAs

For a sixth consecutive week, Royal London Short Term Money Market was the most popular fund in ISAs on the ii platform, as investors sought to wait out the market turbulence and earn about 4.5% on their cash, with next to no market risk.

But not all investors were risk averse. Some bought the dip in tech-focused Scottish Mortgage Ord (LSE:SMT) last week, pushing it from fifth to the second-most popular collective in ISAs.

This comes as SMT shares are 30% below their recent mid-February highs. The discount has remained steadily at 10%, even as its net asset value has fallen substantially due to Trump’s trade war.

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However, other global funds with a lot of exposure to US and tech shares fell in popularity. This includes Fidelity Index World (down four places to 10th) and L&G Global Technology Index trust (down six places to ninth).

The other fallers last week were Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity, Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW) and Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity.

Equity markets suffered historic losses last week. Deutsche Bank calculated that the S&P 500 saw its fifth-worst two-day performance since the Second World War, only rivalled by Black Monday in 1987, the 2008 Great Financial Crash and Covid-19. 

Two global investment trusts rose up the ranks, however. Both Alliance Witan Ord (LSE:ALW) (a new entry in fourth) and JPMorgan Global Growth & Income Ord (LSE:JGGI) (entering in sixth place) are cognisant of not becoming too concentrated in US tech giants. Still, the shares are 13% and 15% lower this year.

UK income investor City of London Ord (LSE:CTY) was also popular, rising to fifth place. The trust now yields more than 5% following a recent share price drop.

Falling off the top 10 list were F&C Investment Trust and HSBC FTSE All World Index.

Funds and trusts section written by ii’s Sam Benstead.