Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.), easyJet PLC (LSE:EZJ) and International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) were the top London-listed shares held by UK-based eToro users at the end of 2022.
The top six stocks for the UK investors on the online platform, where the average age of its clients is 34, were all US-listed tech or ‘meme’ stocks.
Rolls has lost more than half its market value since the start of 2020, while airlines IAG and easyjet share prices both wallow more than two-thirds lower than before the pandemic.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and NIO Inc (NYSE:NIO) were the top three most-held on the eToro platform in the final quarter of the year, the exact same top three as a year earlier, with their share prices down roughly 70%, 50% and 65% respectively.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) were the next three, followed by UK-listed Rolls in seventh, Microsoft Corp in eighth and easyJet in ninth, with Google parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) rounding off the top 10.
Only one other UK-listed company was in the top 20: British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG).
Dropping out of the top 20 from the previous year were space tourism company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE), Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) Inc, Asensus Surgical (NYSE:ASXC) Inc and Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY), though of this quartet only Virgin Galactic has fallen as much as Telsa over the past year.
“2022 was an exceptionally poor year for investments, and for some of our users, it will be the biggest bear market that they have experienced,” said eToro market strategist Ben Laidler.
He said the company’s client research showed the “vast majority” of retail investors have long term time horizons, making them resilient to market cycles.
“From what we can see, a lot of retail investors took a ‘wait and see’ position in 2022 rather than change their investment approach.
“The most popular stocks are still dominated by big tech despite this year’s sell off, but when we look at these names - Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet - we are talking about giants with fortress balance sheets, structural growth outlooks and now cheaper valuations, which will have encouraged more to buy in.”
He said GameStop and cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC), two so-called ‘meme’ stocks, saw a resurgence at the end of the year, returning to the top 20.
Laidler attributed the likes of Netflix, GameStop and AMC surging in popularity as a result of “bottom fishing”, with the shares down around 45%, 50% and over 80% respectively.
Contrast the eToro list with rival online broker Interactive Investor (ii), the second largest UK investment platform and with an average reported client age of 57, and the name at the top is the same: Tesla, with the only other US name being Amazon in seventh.
The ii list counts the most-bought investments rather than the most-held however, with Tesla moving up a place in December from second in November to capture the top spot.
And the rest of the list is markedly different, with Vodafone PLC, Glencore PLC, BP PLC making up the blue chips in the top four places for ii clients in December, with Lloyds Banking Group PLC, Rolls, BT Group PLC also in the leaderboard.
Along with oil giant BP, which shot from number 10 in November, Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF) also make up the top 10.
Bargain hunting also was likely to be the motivation for Boohoo Group PLC (AIM:BOO) making the list for a successive month after falling 70% since the start of the year.
Victoria Scholar, ii's head of investment analysis, said Amazon and Telsa being so popular in December was "particularly interesting after a challenging year" for the shares.
"Perhaps some investors are hoping that this stock could stage a recovery, and opportunistic investors are viewing the slump as a chance to buy the stock for half the price."
December saw Cineworld fall out of the most-bought list as it undergoes bankruptcy proceedings in the US.
“Overall, after a particularly challenging year for investors in which most global indices suffered declines, 2023 looks set to pose further obstacles which will need navigating," she said.
“This ranges from slowing global growth to ongoing elevated inflation levels. However, the prospect of slowing interest rate increases and China’s economic reopening could offset these pressures to some extent. But only time will tell.”