The top three most bought shares on interactive investor in July remained the same, although they traded places to finish in the amended order of Glencore, Vodafone and Lloyds Banking.

GlaxoSmithKline came back on to the radar of investors after raising its guidance outlook at its half-year update, whilst Shell also returned as it announced confirmation of its $25 billion share buyback programme at its interim numbers release.

Meanwhile, there was also some interest in Aviva in advance of its (early August) six-months release, again propelled by an above average dividend yield of 5.7% (current average for the FTSE100 as a whole is 3.8%).

Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at interactive investor, the UK’s leading flat fee investment platform, says:

“The FTSE100 managed to eke out a gain of 1.5% in the month of July, a reasonable performance against the backdrop of a mixed month for sterling and an escalation in the trade tensions between the US and China. By the same token, many of the FTSE100 companies have overseas exposure, especially to the US, so the fact that the economy there is currently firing on all cylinders had a positive impact on those companies as the second quarter/half year results began to filter through.”

“Despite the minimal hike in UK interest rates at the end of the month, it is an unavoidable fact that there is an extremely strong element of income-seeking amongst our investors. With the exception of Barclays (which yields 2.4%), the other nine stocks each provide a relatively punchy return in this (still) historically low interest rate environment. Indeed, excluding Barclays, the average yield of those nine stocks is 5.7%.”

Most bought FTSE 100 stocks by interactive investor’s customers in July 2018

Rank Company  Previous rank* Dividend yield (%)
1 Glencore 2 4.8
2 Vodafone 3 7.1
3 Lloyds Banking 1 5
4 BP 9 5.3
5 BT 5 6.5
6 Barclays 4 2.4
7 Aviva new entry 5.7
8 Royal Dutch Shell new entry 5.6
9 Standard Life Aberdeen 6 6.7
10 GlaxoSmithKline New entry 4.9

*June 2018
Source: interactive investor, 7 August.