Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY), meme stock AMC Entertainment Holdings and Russia’s gold miner Polymetal International PLC (LSE:POLY) were among the most popular stocks for UK private investors over the past month recent.
Data from investment platform Interactive Investor (ii) and trading app Freetrade for March had Polymetal and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) the top of their respective lists.
As well as Polymetal, which by the fist week of the month had seen its share price crash well over 90% from the day before the invasion of Ukraine, small investors showed their continuing taste for bargain hunting, with fellow Russia-linked Evraz PLC (LSE:EVR), Eurasia Mining PLC (AIM:EUA) and Petropavlovsk PLC (LSE:POG), along with depressed airline engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) and British Airways owner IAG (International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE:IAG)).
“Again, in March we continued to see some investors lean into market volatility,” observed Victoria Scholar at ii.
The three Russian oriented miners were in the most-bought list for a second consecutive month, she noted, “driven by demand for Russian assets after a sharp sell-off at the onset of war.
“Demand was also driven by investor interest in the mining sector, which has outperformed lately amid the favourable backdrop of commodity price inflation.”
At Freetrade, tech stocks were the go-to for its users, with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its top-15 leaderboard for the month, topped by Tesla for the successive month.
“It's been a smart move,” said Freetrade’s head of equity research, Paul Allison.
“The Nasdaq 100 is now 8% higher than the day Russia invaded Ukraine and some of its components have done much better than that. Tesla is a remarkable 65% higher.
“Sticking with the tech giants makes sense for a couple of reasons. Firstly, their sales and profits are unlikely to be directly impacted by the Ukraine conflict in the long term. Secondly, many of the companies have solid balance sheets with little to no debt after adjusting for cash holdings, making them less vulnerable to inflation led rate rises and giving them a defensive characteristic.
“These companies outperformed during the recent correction and are leading the recovery, showing the demand for big tech is turning evergreen.”
Elsewhere in the Freetrade list Bens Creek Group PLC (AIM:BEN, OTC:BENCF), a relative AIM newcomer, which made its first metallurgical coal sales during the month, and Hycroft Mining Corporation a new entry, after being catapulted head-scratchingly into the news when cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) bought large stake in the struggling gold miner.
Lloyds and Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) was popular among investors on both platforms.
“The popularity of L&G and Lloyds demonstrate the draw of financial services companies to retail investors in the current economic climate,” said Allison.
“Both stocks offer attractive dividend yields and with the current interest rate environment helping their profits, current prospects for further payouts look good.”
Most popular shares on Freetrade, March 2022
- Tesla (=)
- Apple (up 1 place)
- Meta (down 1 place)
- Amazon (+3)
- Lloyds (+6)
- Evraz (+4)
- AMC Entertainment (+6)
- Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF Acc. (=)
- Alphabet (-5)
- Ben’s Creek Group (+13)
- Legal & General (+8)
- Microsoft (-6)
- BP PLC (LSE:BP.) (-8)
- Hycroft Mining (New entry)
- Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF Dist. (VUSA) (-6)
Most bought shares on ii March 2022
- Polymetal
- Rolls Royce
- Lloyds Banking
- Evraz
- Barclays
- Petropavlovsk
- Eurasia Mining
- Easyjet
- Legal & General
- International Consolidated Airlines