10 hottest ISA shares, funds and trusts: week ended 7 June 2024

With the new tax year under way, 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

There are plenty of familiar faces in this week’s list of most-bought ISA stocks on the ii platform, but it’s interesting to see half the top 10 are new entries.

National Grid (LSE:NG.) remained in the top spot for a third week, and there do seem to be plenty of investors willing to buy the dip. It was no different this time when the price fell from over 900p to 865p.  

Trading activity ballooned following the utility’s decision to launch the UK’s biggest rights issue since 2009 to raise funds for a massive investment programme over the next five years. Dealings in the new shares is set to begin at 8am on Wednesday 12 June.

Highest of the five newbies is BP (LSE:BP.), straight in at number two from 14th last week. As we reported, BP was among the big fallers last Tuesday when ratings agency S&P Global cut the oil giant’s credit outlook to stable on concerns about slower-than-expected debt reduction. Weak oil prices also hurt sentiment but bargain hunters were tempted by shares at a four-month low.

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GSK (LSE:GSK) is in fourth spot, making its first appearance since mid-April. A 10% slump in share price attracted investors who bet that the selling is overdone. The sharp decline came as a Delaware state court allowed jury trials on cancer claims relating to the company’s Zantac heartburn drug.

Petrofac Ltd (LSE:PFC) is in at number eight, the first time the oil industry engineer has been anywhere near the ISA top 10. Its shares were suspended at the end of April following a delay to publication of its audited full-year 2023 results. Shares plunged to a record low of 8.3p as it also issued a disappointing update on financial restructuring and trading.

When trading resumed on 4 June after publication of results, shares traded as high as 26p. However, the company’s future is precarious. Management said: “The outlook for the business is predicated on the group maintaining sufficient liquidity and successfully implementing a financial restructuring which strengthens the group’s balance sheet, improves liquidity and provides access to guarantees on normal commercial terms.”

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Insurer Phoenix Group Holdings (LSE:PHNX), the FTSE 100’s highest-yielding stock, is back in the thick of things, up from 11th to seventh last week.

And speculators jumped on GameStop Corp Class A (NYSE:GME) again, three weeks after the struggling American computer game retail chain first appeared in this year’s top 10.

You may remember GameStop from a few years ago when the share price rocketed as much as 2,500%. Now, after trending lower for three years, there’s renewed interest in the stock.

GameStop shares, worth 11p at the end of April, spiked to 64p mid-May. Two weeks later they were back below 20p. But last week they spiked again, this time to 48p, in anticipation of a YouTube livestream at the end of the week by Keith Gill, the social media meme stock investor better known as “Roaring Kitty”. 

But shares fell sharply on Friday to below 30p after the company said it was selling more stock to take advantage of the higher share price. It also brought forward publication of first-quarter results that showed sales fell more than expected, down 29% to $881.8 million. It lost a net $32.3 million during the three months, although that was less than the same time last year.

Top 10 funds and trusts in ISAs

The results of India’s election caused a surge in demand – as well as lots of volatility – for Indian shares.  

Narendra Modi won a third term as prime minister, but his majority was not as large as market watchers predicted. This caused an initial spike in shares, then a drop, before the NIFTY 50 index of its largest companies hit a fresh all-time high.  

Jupiter India is the most common way that ii customers add Indian equities to their portfolios. In ISAs last week, it rose seven places to be the most-bought fund, knocking L&G Global Technology Index Trust off the top spot and into third. Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity rose one place to second, while another popular global strategy, JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (LSE:JGGI) rose one place to fourth.  

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City of London Ord (LSE:CTY), the UK Equity Income “dividend hero” was also popular last week, rising three places to seventh. It yields 4.8% and currently trades on a rare discount of 2.3%.  

Four other funds dropped down the list but stayed among the top 10 most-popular ISA funds and investment trusts: Royal London Short Term Money Market , Scottish Mortgage (LSE:SMT), Fundsmith Equity and Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW). 

The only new entry was Alliance Trust (LSE:ATST), which knocked passive rival HSBC FTSE All World off the list. It was previously the ninth most-popular collective investment.  

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