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Isa season is rapidly approaching: the end of one financial year and the start of the next one, with investors (and savers!) trying to use up as much of their allowance as possible before 5 April, at which point the £20,000 annual allowance per person resets.
While there is ongoing discussion over whether Cash Isa limits could be cut, the overall allowance is a use it or lose it situation – unused allowances cannot be rolled over into the next financial year.
At the start of 2025, investors in stocks and shares Isas have been putting money into a range of individual companies and funds hoping to generate returns which can help beat inflation and even interest rates, particularly over the longer term.
AJ Bell, one of the UK’s largest investment platforms, has shared data on what their Isa customers have been purchasing this year – with some familiar names among the top ten businesses being bought alongside some perhaps more surprising ones.
American chipmaker Nvidia, formerly the most valuable listed company on the planet, holds top spot at the start of the year on the platform and is followed by MicroStrategy, a company which essentially buys up bitcoin and which rebranded to Strategy last month. British businesses in housebuilding, insurance and travel also feature in the most popular list.
“DIY investors have been busy filling their Isas ahead of the tax year-end on 5 April,” says Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. “Isas are a great way to build up wealth and shelter your gains and income from the taxman.
“Exposure to global and US markets and generous dividend payers were key themes, as you might expect from Isa users. However, there were a few surprises including a shift in behaviour by investment trust fans, and stock investors were taking quite a few contrarian bets.”
From bitcoin to trainers, houses to energy
Those contrarian bets perhaps include fashion shoe retailer JD Sports, a long-time favourite of British investors but one whose share price is down more than 40 per cent across the past six months. Airline Easyjet is up three per cent across the same timeframe, but is down ten per cent over a year.
The full list of most popular stocks and shares on the platform, by net flows from 1 January to 28 February, were:
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These choices could be grouped into three different categories, added Mr Coatsworth, including “higher-risk investments linked to cryptocurrencies and AI, generous dividend payers such as retirement savings group Phoenix, and out of favour companies where investors are potentially buying in the hope of a rebound.”
Spread your eggs across multiple baskets
Outside of individual shares, data on funds which offer a more diversified approach showed an ongoing preference by investors for low-cost passive or tracker shares, as opposed to more expensive actively managed funds.
Funds typically focus on a sector, theme or geographic region, so an S&P 500 fund for example tracks the performance of the biggest companies in the United States, while a physical gold fund would seek to follow the performance of the precious metal’s price by holding bullion.
AJ Bell’s most popular list of funds were as follows:
- Fidelity Index World
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
- Royal London Short Term Money Markets
- HSBC FTSE All World Index
- iShares S&P 500 ETF
- iShares Physical Gold ETC
- Vanguard FTSE All World
- iShares Ultrashort Bond ETF
- Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index
- HSBC American Index Fund
“UK investors are increasingly losing faith in the ability for fund managers to consistently outperform the market. By shunning active funds, investors are choosing the lower cost route of simply tracking the market. It’s easy to see why,” Mr Coatsworth said.
“Research by AJ Bell recently found that less than a third (31 per cent) of actively managed funds have beaten a passive alternative over the past 10 years.”
Finally, data on investment trusts also shows the yield on offer from payouts.
Weakening share prices in some areas, and widening discounts to the Net Asset Value (NAV) of them have pushed yields up in some cases. Here are the top ten trusts on AJ’s platform this year and their yields at the time of publishing:
- City of London Investment Trust – 4.7%
- TwentyFour Select Monthly Income – 8.5%
- JPMorgan Global Growth & Income – 3.9%
- Law Debenture – 3.5%
- 3i Group – 1.5%
- The Renewables Infrastructure Group – 10.0%
- Greencoat UK Wind – 9.1%
- Henderson Far East Income – 11.3%
- Abrdn European Logistics Income – 6.1%
- Supermarket Income REIT – 8.8%
“Investors may view such trusts as bargains given many trade on large discounts to the value of their underlying portfolio. Large yields offer compensation for the shares being out of favour but there is still uncertainty in when or if those discounts will start to narrow,” Mr Coatsworth noted.
All profits from dividends or capital appreciation are tax-free when made in an Isa wrapper.
