Football fans had an eventful July, finding out first that the FIFA World Cup Final had been turned into a wrestling match/music concert before learning that the 2030 edition might not even go ahead after European football’s governing body UEFA threatened to boycott it if FIFA president Gianni Infantino went ahead with selling off the competition to the highest bidder (as long as that bidder was a relation of the US president).
In a decision that would make any politician proud, FIFA duly backtracked when it found to its shock that the move would be unpopular with people who actually like football for more than one month every four years.
Investors also had a rollercoaster ride in July, with the rescue by Citadel of Situational Awareness, a hedge fund created by a former AI researcher with very little awareness of any situation in which running with leverage of around 400% might get it into trouble.
The hedge fund’s failure was likely due to the fall in semiconductor stocks, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index dropping by over 20%, although it was also probably a contributing factor in the fall, too, as these things tend to be a vicous circle.
Yet, most (not all) regional markets seemed to escape unscathed and got ready to march upwards once more to start August. So, what were investors buying during the month?
Top 10 most bought and sold shares in July
These were the most (and least) popular shares with UK retail investors on three of the largest investment platforms last month:
| Most-bought shares | Most-sold shares |
| 1. Rolls-Royce (RR) | 1. easyJet (EZJ) |
| 2. SpaceX (SPCX) | 2. Micron Technology (MU) |
| 3. Micron Technology (MU) | 3. BP (BP) |
| 4. AstraZeneca (AZN) | 4. Rolls-Royce (RR) |
| 5. Tesla (TSLA) | 5. Lloyds (LLOY) |
| 6. National Grid (NG) | 6. Nvidia (NVDA) |
| 7. BAE Systems (BA) | 7. Legal & General (LGEN) |
| 8. GSK (GSK) | 8. Microsoft (MSFT) |
| 9. Lloyds (LLOY) | 9. Glencore (GLEN) |
| 10. Barclays (BARC) | 10. Vodafone (VOD) |
Source: AJ Bell, Bestinvest, IG and interactive investor
Blockbusters
One theme we saw last month was mega-deals – a continuation of a theme currently defining the UK stock market. Indeed, we’ve written extensively on the fact that while public market investors see little to no attraction in UK plc, private market investors have come to the opposite conclusion.
Trade buyers, private equity firms and more have decided British businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange are trading at such cheap levels, they’re snapping them up on a regular basis.
A bidding war for the budget airline easyJet (EZJ) has seemingly been a catalyst for profit-taking from investors, after the share price doubled from its most recent low point. The orange-liveried carrier has drawn competing bids from the private equity firms Apollo and Castlelake.
Apollo has the highest bid thus far, at £7.15 per share, a premium of c. 73% to its closing price on 29/05/2026 and still 11% higher than the share price at the time of writing on 05/08/2026. Management has said it will recommend Apollo’s bid, but has extended the window for Castlelake to up its offer.
On the other foot, we’ve started to see M&A activity going the other way, too. GSK (GSK) returned to the list of most-bought shares this month, after the firm made a couple of key purchases, including spending almost $1bn on the Canadian firm 35Pharma, which develops drugs to treat cardiopulmonary diseases, and then buying Nuvalent, a Boston-based creator of oncology therapies, for c. $10.6bn.
Fellow pharma big-dog AstraZeneca (AZN) was on the list, too, suggesting the return to a slight defensive mindset for some investors, as healthcare is generally seen as a recession-proof sector.
Plumbing the AI depths
Investors continue to rotate their cash around all parts of the AI story, as they try to figure out who exactly the winners will be from the emerging technology.
After a long flirtation with the hyperscalers, such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft – those firms ploughing huge sums into building data centres to power AI, attention then focused on the semiconductor sector.
This seemed sensible, given the hyperscalers were spending heavily on the silicon chips made by the likes of Nvidia, Micron and SK Hynix, meaning their revenue forecasts have skyrocketed at the same time the hyperscalers’ free cash flow has dwindled.
With NVIDIA (NVDA) slipping down our list of most-bought shares, Micron Technology (MU) has been picking up the slack. MU’s earnings per share are expected to more than double in 2027 thanks to these factors. However, shares slipped well into bear market territory throughout July, as investors worried about the sustainability of the money being poured into AI infrastructure. Shares remain up more than 700% over the past 12 months, though.
Talking of AI infrastructure, despite the UK being seen as a laggard when it comes to housing AI stocks, there is a selection of names that are increasingly being seen as beneficiaries. One of these is National Grid (NG).
A recent report from Electric Insights found that the UK’s electricity demand grew for two consecutive years for the first time in 20 years after a protracted period of decline, largely thanks to data centres, which now account for 6% of UK electricity consumption, the International Data Center Authority found. This is a positive for NG, since it owns and operates the UK’s electricity grid.
NG also recently paid $1.75bn for a 35% stake in Joulent, which is building a power generation site to help power a data centre operated by Microsoft.
Top 10 most bought investment trusts in July
Moving onto investment trusts, and the top of the list remained broadly unchanged, but we did see some new entries further down the list:
| Top 10 most-bought investment trusts |
| 1. Scottish Mortgage (SMT) |
| 2. Polar Capital Technology (PCT) |
| 3. BlackRock World Mining (BRWM) |
| 4. City of London (CTY) |
| 5. JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI) |
| 6. Henderson Far East Income (HFEL) |
| 7. Law Debenture (LWDB) |
| 8. Allianz Technology Trust (ATT) |
| 9. Templeton Emerging Markets (TEM) |
| 10. Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) |
Source: AJ Bell, Bestinvest and interactive investor
Looking east
Some have started buying the dip in Asia and emerging markets. The slight cooling in sentiment towards chipmakers has impacted markets such as Korea and Taiwan, which have significant exposure to AI thanks to companies such as TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix.
Weakness in Korea was compounded by the sheer number of retail investors that have jumped on the bandwagon of soaring share prices. Korean regulators acted in May to allow more people to buy leveraged, single-stock exchange traded funds (ETFs) to try and encourage more people to invest in the stock market.
Ordinary investors piled in, only to see the KOSPI plunge by as much as 40% through June and July, leading many to nurse losses in the region of 60% to 80% in some extreme cases.
Still, the case for emerging markets remains strong. AI stocks are bouncing back and SK Hynix is forecast to make more in 2027 than it’s made in its 27-year history combined. If traffic through the Strait of Hormuz starts to flow more freely, this will benefit those developing nations that import their oil.
The beneficiaries thus far within the UK’s investment trust space have been Henderson Far East Income (HFEL)and Templeton Emerging Markets (TEM).
Panning for gold
Another area of the market that has come off the boil recently are metals, particularly gold. After a strong bull run, the precious metal had fallen as much as 25%. This fall has been mirrored by the companies that mine things like gold, silver and copper, with key ETFs tracking the share prices of the former two down c. 40% and the latter down c. 25%.
While participants fret over whether this is the bursting of a bubble, others suspect it might just be a rational profit-taking episode and consolidation before another leg higher. It seems the corollary of this is that BlackRock World Mining (BRWM)has made its way back into our most-popular investment trusts once more.
Outlook
We’ve seen plenty of turbulence around the globe so far this year and anybody reading the news pages and throwing their newspapers away before reaching the business sections might be forgiven for assuming stock markets around the world were in similar turmoil.
In actuality, global markets as a whole have been remarkably resilient, to borrow a popular phrase from our recent round-up of investment outlooks. In fact, the S&P 500 was back at a record high at the time of writing.
While backward-looking valuation metrics suggest share prices are looking decidedly toppy and that returns moving forward are likely to be low to non-existent, forward-looking metrics paint a more upbeat picture.
The price-to-earnings and cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratios (backward looking) on the MSCI USA Index remain high at c. 27× and 40× respectively as of 31/07/2026, yet the forward PE was much lower at c. 20×.
Much of this is predicated on the difference between past earnings and future earnings, with many thinking AI-derived earnings will mean companies are set to earn much more than they have, in aggregate, in the past.
Whether this happens or whether mean reversion is still a driving force remains to be seen and time will tell which is right.
Disclaimer
This is not substantive investment research or a research recommendation, as it does not constitute substantive research or analysis. This material should be considered as general market commentary.
The post Top of the stocks: Most bought and sold shares in July appeared first on USNewsRank.
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