Early-bird ISA investors have increased by almost a third this tax year, with the most popular investments being banks, insurers and international funds.
There has been an almost 31% increase in customers maxing out their ISA on the Hargreaves Lansdown platform in the first 10 days of the tax year.
Moreover, customers’ payments into a stocks and shares ISA wrapper in this ‘early bird’ period of the tax year has increased 10%, the UK’s largest investment platform said.
Male investors have made up the bulk of these early birds, with the gender split of those maxing out their ISAs so far being 67% male and 33% female.
“This is a higher proportion of male investors than usual; the HL stock and shares ISA split overall is 61.5% male and 38.5% female, implying our ISA maxer early birds are more male than the general ISA population,” said Emma Wall, HL’s head of investment analysis and research.
Top 10 investments HL clients bought in first 10 days
- Legal & General US Index (ETF)
- Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN)
- Jupiter India (fund and investment trust)
- Fundsmith Equity (fund)
- Fidelity Index World (ETF)
- Legal & General International Index (ETF)
- Rathbone Global Opportunities (fund)
- Legal & General Global Technology Index (ETF)
- Aviva PLC (LSE:AV.)
- Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY)
The most popular purchases have been a continuation of trading trends seen over recent months: the US, India, banks and technology stocks.
“A mix of momentum and income,” Wall described this. “This is a more diversified list than through 2023, in which just tech dominated the top 10 buys lists, and for an ISA wrapper, which we typically consider an investment timeframe of 5-10 years, these are suitable selections.
“However, investors should consider the correlation between some of these selections and ensure that by buying into areas of the market that have done well they may be increasing portfolio biases.”
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