BP, L&G, Lloyds and Tesla most bought shares for UK investors in 2023, bargain hunting rules in December

BP PLC (LSE:BP.), Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) remained the most bought shares by UK small private investors in 2023 on most platforms, though Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and other members of the so-called Magnificent Seven US tech megacaps were top of the list for others.

Investment habits continued to vary greatly between DIY investors on different platforms, many of which seem to reflect distinctive demographic groups.

Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN), Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Aviva PLC (LSE:AV.) and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) were the top purchases on the Hargreaves Lansdown platform over the year.

The shares of three of this quartet made no headway or even reversed in 2023, while one roughly doubled (no prizes if you guessed Tesla).

Similarly, Lloyds and L&G were the top two on Interactive Investor, with Tesla, BP and Aviva also in the top 10, along with Rolls Royce Holdings PLC, one of London’s best blue-chip performers last year.

On FreeTrade, where the average customer is aged around 31 with over a third of customers in the under 35 age bracket, the top 10 purchases last year included Tesla, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN, ETR:AMZ), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Tesla kept its top spot in the fourth quarter on FreeTrade, with the top 10 also including Nvidia and Microsoft.

Likewise, eToro, where the average user is 34 compared to HL and AJ Bell where the averages are in the mid-40s, the top UK purchase in the final quarter was Take-Two Interactive Software Inc (NASDAQ:TTWO) (as it was added to the Nasfaq 100 index), while the top five also included FTSE blue-chip BAE Systems PLC (LSE:BA.).

At the end of the year, the stocks most widely held by eToro’s UK users were virtually all US tech megacaps –  Tesla, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Alphabet – along with a Chinese carmaker NIO Inc (NYSE:NIO), GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) and Rolls-Royce (interestingly eToro's top 10 for its global userbase does not include GameStop).

At Freetrade it’s a similar story, with Tesla top and the other sizeable six also in the top 10, along with an All-World ETF and two US big cap trackers.

For the big platforms where the big tech firms are not as prevalent as direct investment it seems funds are the vehicle of choice for investors. 

This is shown with Scottish Mortgage PLC, where top holdings include Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla and SpaceX, topping investment trust purchases on the AJ Bell platform for December, with almost a quarter of trust purchases by number, followed by City of London at 10%, BlackRock World Mining Trust at just under 6%.

It was not much different on ii, with Scottish Mortgage top of the tree, followed by JPMorgan Global Growth & Income, City of London and BlackRock World Mining, with Greencoat UK Wind PLC (LSE:UKW) in between. 

For the year as a whole, SMT was top of the list for ii customers, followed by City Of London, Greencoat UK Wind, F&C Investment Trust, Blackrock World Mining, Alliance Trust, JPMorgan GG&I, Merchants Trust plc (LSE:MRCH), Henderson Far East Income and The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited (LSE:TRIG).

For unit trusts, Fundsmith Equity Fund was top, followed by Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% and 100% Equity funds, Royal London Short Term Money Market and the L&G Global Technology Index fund.

Fourth quarter and December trends

Weightloss drug companies Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) and Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) also made a big surge among eToro customers in the final quarter, with the number of clients holding the stocks jumping 13% and 24% respectively in the quarter.

Other purchases buying the dip on big names down on their luck, according to the latest quarterly stocks data from trading and investing platform eToro.

Bargain hunter also seemed to be on the prowl, with German pharmaceutical giant Bayer popular after its share price hit a 12-year low, while the popularity of Vodafone also followed its share price hitting an all-time low in December, and US automotive firm Fisker featured after a 75% price plunge in the year.

This motivation was also apparent on the ii platform, Petrofac seeming to have come into the crosshairs of bargain hunters in December after the shares price fell over 54% over the year and 92% over the past five before winning a couple of big contracts just before Christmas.

Rolls-Royce continued to be popular topped the leaderboard once more on ii, as investors continued to ride the wave of its successful turnaround plan which helped the shares jump 210% during 2023.

Glencore continued its momentum as a favoured stock choice on platforms for both old times and under 40s, helped by its recent deal with Teck Resources.

At the other side of the coin, the quarter saw investors lock in profits on some of the year’s best performers, with eToro’s UK clients exiting Snapchat, Salesforce and Liberty Media (NASDAQ:LINTA) Corp.

Among Freetrade’s most bought stocks, jostling in between the tech titans, are a vehicle that gives investors exposure to the SONIA overnight lending rate (not totally dissimilar to a money market fund but using total return swaps) and a UK government debt offering that was launched in December and is one of the few (Freetrade says the only) ways for retail investors in the UK to buy into UK treasury bills issued at the weekly auction from the UK Debt Management Office (DMO). 

Treasury bills are different from gilts, it is worth noting, with less than a year maturity and with zero coupon, while also being taxed differently.

ii most bought in December

1. Rolls Royce Holdings
2. Petrofac
3. Vodafone Group
4. Anglo American
5. Glencore
6. Lloyds Banking Group
7. British American Tobacco
8. BP
9. Tesla
10. Legal & General

AJ Bell top equity buys in the past month

1. BP PLC (LSE:BP.) 12.85%
2. BAE Systems 5.70%
3. HSBC Holdings PLC 5.54%
4. Unilever PLC 5.26%
5. Rolls-Royce 4.47%
6. Anglo American 3.65%
7. Vodafone Group 3.40%
8. British American Tobacco 3.37%
9. Legal & General Group 2.94%
10. Lloyds Banking Group 2.55%

Freetrade most bought stocks in December (by value)

1. Tesla 
2. Overnight Return £CSH2
3. Marathon Digital 
4. Vanguard S&P 500 
5. Coinbase 
6. T-Bill 22JAN24 
7. FTSE All-World
8. Nvidia 
9. Rolls-Royce

eToro most popular stocks in Q4

1. Take Two Interactive Software
2. Bayer
3. BAE Systems
4. Eli Lilly & Co
5. Vodafone
6. Fisker
7. Exxon-Mobil
8. Walmart
9. Athersys
10. Novo-Nordisk

AJ Bell top sells for the month (by number)

1. Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) 6.20%
2. Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) 5.20%
3. Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) 4.50%
4. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) 4.22%
5. Glencore PLC 4.11%
6. easyJet PLC 3.88%
7. Barclays PLC 3.41%
8. GSK PLC 2.61%
9. BP PLC (LSE:BP.) 2.61%
10. Vodafone Group PLC (LSE:VOD) 2.60%

eToro top exits for Q4 (by number)

• Prosus
• Liberty Media (NASDAQ:LINTA) Corp
• Atlanta Braves Holdings
• Mattel
• Barratt Developments
• Snapchat
• Electronic Arts
• Rio Tinto
• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) 
• Salesforce

Freetrade top buys for Q4

1. Tesla
2. £ Overnight Return £CSH2
3. Vanguard S&P 500 VUAG
4. Nvidia
5. Vanguard S&P 500 VUSA
6. Vanguard All World VWRL
7. Glencore
8. Microsoft
9. Coinbase
10. GBP Overnight Rate Swap ETF £XSTR

Hargreaves Lansdown top share buys for all of 2023

1. Legal & General Group
2. Tesla
3. Aviva
4. Lloyds Banking Group
5. Glencore
6. Barclays
7. BAE Systems
8. Vodafone Group
9. British American Tobacco
10. Phoenix Group Holdings PLC (LSE:PHNX)

ii most bought equities in 2023

1. Lloyds Banking Group
2. Legal & General
3. Glencore
4. Tesla
5. Rolls Royce Holdings
6. Vodafone Group
7. Barclays
8. Aviva
9. Bp
10. easyjet

Hargreaves Lansdown top buys in the past week:

1. Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) 1.81%
2. Argo Blockchain 1.75%
3. Tesla 1.29%
4. Petrofac PLC 1.24%
5. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust 1.22%
6. Marathon Digital Holdings Inc 1.19%
7. Rolls Royce Holdings Plc 1.14%
8. Cipher Mining Inc 0.91%
9. CleanSpark Inc 0.90%
10. Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN) 0.89%