10 hottest ISA shares, funds and trusts: week ended 16 February 2024

With ISA season under way and tax year-end fast approaching, 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 three new entries in this week’s most-bought ISA stocks, the first of which continues to impress in terms of share price performance.

Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.) shares are now at their highest since February 2019, spurred on last week by bullish comments from analysts at Bank of America. The engineer makes it into the broker’s list of top picks, with potential for significant upside.

City writer Graeme Evans covered the story, which included a host of other best ideas, but in summary, Bank of America believes the company’s valuation is attractive versus peers and that there is potential for a “strong re-rating in 2024”. The price target is 420p compared with 329p currently.

Argo Blockchain (LSE:ARB) is in at number seven. We’ve heard nothing from the cryptocurrency miner since an operational update at the start of this month. However, the share price is up by over 50% since 7 February, coinciding with a one-third surge in the price of bitcoin in the past month to prices not seen since December 2021.

Last of the newbies is Close Brothers Group (LSE:CBG). Its shares are down 27% since Valentine’s Day, the day before the merchant bank scrapped its dividend amid fears about the possible repercussions of a probe into historical motor finance commission arrangements.

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Close warned last Thursday: “There is significant uncertainty about the outcome of the [UK Financial Conduct Authority's] review, and the timing, scope and quantum of any potential financial impact on the group cannot be reliably estimated at present.”

NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) was the biggest mover in the top 10, up five places to third spot, in a week that the chip designer became America’s third-largest company, overtaking both Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN). It’s currently worth almost $1.8 trillion after a 251% share price rally in the past 12 months and over 1,700% in five years.

But all eyes are on Wednesday’s quarterly results. We know that the year-on-year increase in key metrics will be huge given the rapid expansion in demand for graphics processing units (GPU), especially from data centres as adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) accelerate.

However, a lot of good news is already baked into the share price, so the numbers need to at least match Wall Street forecasts. Any misses will likely be punished.

But still at number one in the table, and for a fourth consecutive week, is Helium One Global Ltd Ordinary Shares (LSE:HE1). There’s no official news from the company since the £4.7 million fundraising on 7 February, but clearly the potential for upside from further exploration and development in Tanzania is attracting investors.

Top 10 funds and trusts in ISAs

Investing in high-growth companies that have the potential to disrupt their industries, Scottish Mortgage Ord (LSE:SMT) is a favourite among investors looking for long-term growth. 

But with its growth focus, shares are volatile. The trust traded at a peak of around £15 a share in late 2021, before dropping to nearly £6 last year. 

But a recovery to £8 a share, spurred by expectations that interest rates will soon fall, is attracting new buyers once again. Scottish Mortgage rose six place last week to the be the most-bought collective investment on the ii platform in ISA accounts. 

It displaced another technology fund, L&G Global Technology Index at the top of the charts. Fundsmith Equity, which owns technology giants Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Meta Platforms Inc Class A (NASDAQ:META), was the third-most bought last week.

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Technology as a theme has been very popular this year, as excitement around artificial intelligence (AI) boosts the share prices of software and semiconductor companies. 

Demand for Indian shares continued last week, with Jupiter India the fourth most-bought collective, although it was in second place the week before. 

Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW) dropped one place to fifth, while JPMorgan Global Growth & Income Ord (LSE:JGGI) and Pershing Square Holdings Ord GBP (LSE:PSH) held on to the sixth and ninth positions. 

Global funds Alliance Trust Ord (LSE:ATST) and HSBC FTSE All-World Index were new entries on the list, displacing Polar Capital Technology Ord (LSE:PCT) and Vanguard US Equity Index in the top 10. 

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