Interactive Investor

Top 10 most-purchased ETFs in June 2024

Funds tracking technology shares rose up the ranks last month, as markets hit fresh highs.

1st July 2024 11:43

Sam Benstead from interactive investor

Two new technology trackers broke into the top 10 most bought exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in June, as tech stocks hit new records, powered higher by excitement around the potential of artificial intelligence.

They were iShares S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Ucits ETF (LSE:IITU) in fifth place and VanEck Semiconductor ETF GBP (LSE:SMGB) in sixth place.

They join the ever-popular Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 ETF GBP (LSE:EQQQ), in fourth place, as common ways of adding tech shares to a portfolio, all for a low ongoing charge.

Of the three, SMGB has been the best performer over three years, doubling in value, followed by IITU and then EQQQ, which have returned 88.8% and 51.5%.

While returns have been excellent, investors should expect volatility, as waves of excitement around a new technology often leads to shares becoming overvalued, at least over the short term.

These ETFs have also become very concentrated in just a handful of top-performing tech shares, such as NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL).

The two most-popular ETFs last month both tracked the S&P 500 index of America’s largest shares. In first place was the distributing version of Vanguard’s US tracker, followed by the accumulation version. They cost 0.07% in fees and have proven very hard for active managers to beat.

iShares Core MSCI World Ucits ETF was in third place. Tracking around 1,500 shares from developed markets, it is a “core” equity option on our Super 60 list of recommended funds. Costing 0.2% in fees, it is a top-quartile performer versus global funds (including actively managed ones) over the past five years, returning 76.3%.

Two other global trackers made the list: Vanguard FTSE All World Ucits ETF (dis) and Vanguard FTSE All World Ucits ETF (acc). They are “all world” trackers, meaning they also own emerging market shares. The ETFs cost 0.22% and own around 3,700 companies, including some from China, India and Taiwan.

iShares Physical Gold ETC remained popular, dropping two places to seventh place, as did iShares Core FTSE 100 Ucits (dis), falling three places to eighth.

Dropping off the most-bought ETF list last month were the accumulation version of iShares Core FTSE 100 and Vanguard FTSE Developed World Ucits ETF.

Source: interactive investor/FE FundInfo, 30 June 2024.

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