Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT) was toppled from its pole position as the most-bought investment trust on the UK's largest investment platforms in September.
FTSE 100-listed SMT, which has long ranked as one of the most popular ways to gain US big-tech exposure on the London Stock Exchange, was displaced for the first time in 12 months on the Interactive Investor platform by the Blackrock World Mining Trust (LSE:BRWM).
This was attributed it to a less-bullish big-tech outlook in September. This also impacted other prominent tech-focused funds on the London Stock Exchange.
Kyle Caldwell, funds and investment education editor at interactive investor, said: “In what could be the start of a prolonged trend, investors have become less enthusiastic about technology shares over the past month.
“This is reflected in L&G Global Technology Index moving from first to fourth place in our top 10 most-bought funds’ list, Allianz Technology dropping from eighth to ninth place in our investment trust table, and Polar Capital Technology exiting the top 10 entirely.”
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), one of the famed ‘Magnificent Seven’ of US megacap tech stocks, fell off the most-bought equities table entirely.
Caldwell suggested profit taking may have contributed to this: “Taking a long-term view, technology shares have been the place to be.
“Since the start of 2023, share prices have shaken off interest rate concerns and moved higher to reflect the future potential of artificial intelligence.
“However, whenever there’s a strong short-term period for a sector or theme, it’s prudent to reexamine whether your overall exposure needs trimming back to keep a lid on risk.”
In their place was a surge in demand for energy and commodities stocks, including oil supermajors Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) and BP plc.
This was not dissimilar to the top buys on the UK's third largest platform, AJ Bell, where BP and Shell were in first and fourth place, with Legal & General Group PLC, Lloyds Banking Group PLC and HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) making up the top five.
BP was the most bought share on Hargreaves Lansdown in the past week too, followed by Rolls-Royce, Nvidia, Shell and Microstrategy.
Falls of over 9% for BP and Shell over the month on the back of a weaker oil price were enough to lure back investors, with the additional attraction of dividend yields of 5.7% and 4.2% respectively.