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African Potash and Jubilee Platinum top AIM investor lists

Published: 12:35 03 Sep 2015 BST

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Mining was one of the most popular sectors among retail investors

Interest among retail investors in buying stakes in small-cap companies listed on AIM is rising, according to official data.

Individual investors owned 30.6% of AIM shares at the end of 2014, compared to 9.5% of FTSE 100 shares, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.

The Share Centre, which offers a broking service to private investors, said a fifth of its clients who hold ISA tax-free accounts had invested on AIM in the last year.

The top ten AIM stocks traded at the Share Centre included, in order from one to 10, African Potash (LON:AFPO), Jubilee Platinum (LON:JLP), Rare Earth Minerals (LON:REM), Marechale Capital (LON:MAC), Share (LON:SHRE), Quindell (LON:QPP), Optimal Payments (LON:OPAY), UK Oil & Gas (LON:UKOG), Telford Homes (LON:TEF) and Utilitywise (LON:UTW).

The Share Centre said the most popular sectors in which shares were bought on AIM were mining, oil & gas and general finance.

The centre's customer experience director Darren Cornish said consumer confidence and individual investment were on the up.

Cornish said: “It's great to see these UK investors owning nearly a third of AIM listed companies.

"AIM companies are key to the UK economy and personal investors are clearly keen to invest in them."

At the end of 2014, shares in quoted UK domiciled companies were valued at a total of £1.7 trillion, the ONS data showed.

UK individuals owned an estimated 12% of quoted UK shares by value, up from an historic low of 10% in 2012.

Rest-of-the-world investors held significantly more shares than any other sector, owning 54% of the market compared to 31% in 1998.

Unit trusts held 9%, slightly down from the 2012 level but still much higher than in 1998, when they only made up 2%.

Other financial institutions held 7%, similar to 2012 but lower than the 12% they owned in 2010.

Insurance companies held 6% and pension funds 3%, continuing the downward trends in those sectors in the last few years.

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