10 hottest ISA shares, funds and trusts: week ended 21 March 2025
We reveal the 10 most-popular shares, funds and investment trusts added to ISAs on the interactive investor platform during the past week.
24th March 2025 13:46
by Lee Wild from interactive investor
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
Company Name | Place change | |
1 | New | |
2 | New | |
3 | Down 1 | |
4 | New | |
5 | New | |
6 | Down 5 | |
7 | New | |
8 | Down 2 | |
9 | Down 4 | |
10 | Down 6 |
There’s plenty of change at the top of the table this week, with five new entries among the first seven most-bought stocks in ISAs on the ii platform.
Perhaps surprisingly, Tesco (LSE:TSCO) makes only its second appearance in this top 10, and it’s the first time it has topped the table. And it’s thanks to bargain hunters swooping on the stock following a slump which began at the end of the previous week.
Fears about the impact of a price war triggered by Asda hurt all the listed grocers. Tesco shares slumped by 9% on Friday 14 and a further 6% during the first half of last week to prices not seen since August.
“Thinking through the moving parts, once the dust settles we think the Tesco share price reaction may prove overdone,” wrote analysts at Morgan Stanley. “However, near term, negative sentiment will likely dominate, as the market works through the implications as there are clear risks to 2025 EPS [earnings per share]. We await guidance on mitigation.”
Tesco remains the broker’s top pick in the sector, which it believes is “the best-run grocer in the UK” and that its “winner’s advantage cannot be easily dislodged”.
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Although it was knocking on the door of the top 10 from late January throughout much of February, Greatland Gold (LSE:GGP) finally makes it into the list for a second time since its maiden appearance last September.
The miner has made good progress this year, especially at the Telfer mine in Western Australia, which it bought from Newmont early December. And with the gold price making record highs and breaking above $3,000 an ounce, Greatland shares are up 76% so far this year at a 15-month high.
Greatland managing director Shaun Day announced the inaugural Greatland Telfer mineral resource estimate of 3.2 million ounces of contained gold, which he called an “outstanding result”. It means total group mineral resources is now more than 10.2 million ounces of gold and 387,000 tonnes of copper.
Elsewhere, defence firm QinetiQ Group (LSE:QQ.) made the top 10 for only the second time when a rally driven by anticipated demand for defence stocks completely unwound. It was triggered by a trading update, which warned about contract delays both in the UK and US and appeared to downgrade profit expectations for the year to 31 March 2025. Bargain hunters are betting on a recovery.
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- Shares for the future: upgrade thrusts this stock into my top 10
M&G Ordinary Shares (LSE:MNG) is no stranger to the top 10 but hasn’t featured here since December. However, annual results had buyers back in action, with profits beating expectations and the dividend generating a prospective yield of over 9%.
Finally, Glencore (LSE:GLEN) is back in the top 10 after a month’s break. A drop in share price to July 2021 levels has clearly grabbed investors’ attention.
Top 10 funds and trusts in ISAs
Company Name | Place change | |
1 | Unchanged | |
2 | Up 1 | |
3 | Up 1 | |
4 | Down 2 | |
5 | Up 4 | |
6 | New | |
7 | Down 2 | |
8 | New | |
9 | New | |
10 | Down 3 |
Even as US and global stock markets recovered last week, a “cash-like” fund was still the most popular collective in ii ISAs.
Royal London Short Term Money Market yields a little over 4.5% by investing in money market instruments, such as bank deposit accounts, and ultra-safe short-term bonds. Returns closely mirror UK interest rates and so investors have been happy to pick up inflation-beating returns over the past couple of years of higher interest rates and falling inflation.
Global funds dominated the rest of this week’s list: Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity and 100% Equity funds featured, alongside global trackers HSBC FTSE All-World Index and Fidelity Index World.
Meanwhile, technology tracker L&G Global Technology Index I Acc and actively managed Scottish Mortgage Ord (LSE:SMT) were in third and fourth place. They both invest in fast-growing tech businesses, but Scottish Mortgage’s active approach allows it to build large stakes in firms it thinks the market is undervaluing, such as MercadoLibre Inc (NASDAQ:MELI) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN). It can also own private firms and has positions in Elon Musk’s SpaceX as well as TikTok-owner Bytedance.
Income plays Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW) and City of London Ord (LSE:CTY) featured, as did private equity strategy and new entry 3i Group Ord (LSE:III), which replaced Alliance Witan.
Funds and trusts section written by ii’s Sam Benstead.
These articles are provided for information purposes only. Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.
Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.
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