August's most popular shares for retail investors were dominated by apparent bargain hunting, with Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.), GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK) and Vodafone Group PLC (LSE:VOD) snapped up despite falling between 7% and 19% over the month.
Engine maker Rolls and big pharma group GSK were the top two most-bought stocks on the UK's second largest investment platform, interactive investor (ii), and third and fourth on the third-largest platform owned by AJ Bell, where Vodafone and National Grid PLC (LSE:NG.) was first and second.
Hunting for value despite a warning that the shares were worth nothing, Cineworld Group PLC (LSE:CINE) was also third and tenth place on the two platforms after a fall of 80% in the month and over 90% over the past year, while Revolution Beauty PLC, which fell 24% in the month and is down 84% year-to-date, was popular too, despite its warning about accounting issues and audit problems.
The only US stock in both top-ten equities was Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), which fell almost 8% in the month and is down almost a third from its peak.
Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) were also popular across both platforms.
The flurry of trading activity in the stocks, both buying and selling, saw investors "taking a view either that the fundamentals suggest the stock is no longer worth holding or that it is extremely cheap and therefore worth buying", said ii's head of investment, Victoria Scholar.
AJ Bell's most-sold shares list was headed by BP PLC (LSE:BP.), Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) and Haleon PLC (LSE:HLN, NYSE:HLN) - though BP was also in the most-bought list for both platforms.
Among investment trusts, a capital preservation theme has tended to dominate the best buys this year, not to mention an element of inflation protection, with Personal Assets Trust (LSE:PNL), Capital Gearing Trust PLC (LSE:CGT) and Ruffer Investment Trust PLC featuring on the ii platform.
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT) topped both lists, as it tends to do, while F&C Investment Trust PLC (LSE:FCIT), which also has a heavy weighting of US big tech in its portfolio and is heading to join SMT on the FTSE 100, was also popular on both.
The return to blue-chip status after 13 years for F&C, the granddaddy of all trusts with a 150-year history, saw it make the ii top 10 best buys for the first time since March and April 2020.