10 hottest ISA shares, funds and trusts: week ended 31 January 2025

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.

• Invest with ii: Open a Stocks & Shares ISA | ISA Investment Ideas | Transfer a Stocks & Shares ISA

Top 10 shares in ISAs

It’s all change in this list of most-bought stocks in ISAs on the ii platform last week, with a new name at the top and six new entries.

NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares generated the most buying activity in any week since June, and recorded the second-biggest volume of buy trades in ISAs on the ii platform since we started this column more than a year ago. That was enough to jump the chip giant seven places and knock Taylor Wimpey (LSE:TW.) off op spot.

A sudden realisation that American technology is not the only show in town triggered a broad sell-off in top US tech names, including Nvidia. It’s because DeepSeek, a new AI system developed in China, appears more advanced than existing AI, is open-source, so can be used by anyone for commercial purposes, and is said to be much cheaper than existing AI which American companies have spent tens of billions of dollars developing.

Nvidia lost around $600 billion dollars in value, with its share price crashing 18% from over $142 to a low of around $116. But investors bet the selling was overdone and piled in. Nvidia stock remained volatile, trading as high as $129 before ending the week at $120.

• Stockwatch: should you buy the drop in Nvidia?
• Why the pound’s decline can be a shrewd investor’s gain

Of the six new entries, four of them are US companies. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) hasn’t been in this list since the start of November but was the fourth most-bought stock in ISAs last week. It’s likely down to bargain hunting after the software giant’s second-quarter results beat expectations, but third-quarter forecasts were less than expected. Shares fell to prices rarely seen in the past five months.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is back in the list after a three-week absence following sales and earnings that missed Wall Street estimates. Shares were volatile but managed to finish Friday in the upper half of the week’s range.

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) is another newbie, with interest triggered by DeepSeek losses. Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD), which last made an appearance here over Christmas, suffered too, but some investors clearly believe the shares at a one-year low are attractive.

• Shares for the future: why I like this highly rated market leade
• BATS among 10 blue-chip stocks set to pay £3.2bn in dividends

Elsewhere, Glencore (LSE:GLEN) made it into the top 10 for the first time since December as shares traded at levels not seen since September 2021. In the wake of news that merger discussions with Rio Tinto came to nothing, the mining company said full-year production was in line with guidance following an improvement in the second half. Annual results are due on 19 February.

Finally, ImmuPharma (LSE:IMM) makes its debut in the top 10 at number six. Shares in the £22 million AIM company have piqued interest among investors since early January when they were trading at just 1.2p. They were worth as much as 7.4p last week, forcing the company to issue a statement, repeating previous news about “ground-breaking advancements” in its research into autoimmune diseases. It also said “a number” of global biopharma companies were interested in its P140 research programme when it attended the JP Morgan and Biotech Showcase healthcare conferences earlier last month.

Top 10 funds and trusts in ISAs

Despite market turbulence around the success of a Chinese AI model from DeepSeek, which was rumoured to be built for just $6 million, tech funds remained popular last week.

Scottish Mortgage Ord (LSE:SMT) and L&G Global Technology Index I Acc held on to the top two spots, even as their values dropped about 5% each last Monday. They later recovered to trade around flat for the week. Polar Capital Technology Ord (LSE:PCT) also entered the list in fifth place as investors sought to buy the dip in tech valuations.

These three technology funds offer different ways of getting access to the fast-growing asset class. The biggest differentiator for Scottish Mortgage is its 50 private stocks (worth around 25% of the fund), while L&G takes a passive approach and Polar Capital actively selects stocks, with a focus on the largest names.

• Ian Cowie: my forever fund went up despite tech wobble
• Fund Battle: which are the best money market funds?

The other risers were Royal London Short Term Money Mkt Y Acc, Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW), Fidelity Index World P Acc and HSBC FTSE All-World Index C Acc.

Royal London and Greencoat offer attractive income yields of around 5% and 8.5%, while the other two funds track global markets for just 0.12% and 0.13% in fees. 

Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity, JPMorgan Global Growth & Income Ord (LSE:JGGI) and Vanguard U.S. Eq Idx £ Acc all dropped down the most-bought list, while Artemis US Smaller Companies and Assura fell off.

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