Monday was the busiest ever day of trading for UK small investors on the country's second largest share-dealing platform, with Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.), Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) and Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD).
Interactive Investor (ii), part of Aberdeen Group PLC (LSE:ABDN), said it recorded its most ever trades in a single day on 7 April 2025, as investors responded to market volatility following President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements.
Trading volumes were 36% higher than the previous peak, which occurred last week, and were 52% higher than on 9 November 2020, the previous busiest, when Pfizer announced its Covid-19 vaccine.
From 3 to 7 April, 61% of trades were purchases and 39% were sales. Rolls-Royce, Legal & General, and Nvidia were the most traded investments during the period.
Other US equities including Amazon and Tesla led in American trading.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at ii, said: “There is evidence that our customers are attempting to take advantage of market volatility by buying quality companies during the dip.
"At the eye of the storm has been the 'Magnificent Seven', previously drivers of exceptional market performance over the last couple of years."
He noted that previous AI market darling Nvidia has lost 29% and is 35% lower than its record high, while Tesla has declined by 38% this year and Amazon by 20%.
Investors appear to have been riding the wave of military spending pledges in Europe, with BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce rising 37% and 13.5% respectively, with Rolls also boosted by implementing a turnaround plan over recent years.
“Elsewhere, the usual attraction of high-yielding blue-chip stocks was also in evidence, leaving Legal & General comfortably in the top ten given its dividend yield of 9.7%."