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As a new year gets under way, it’s worth reflecting on how market events in 2025 influenced which stocks and funds proved most popular with investors.
Despite volatility driven by political and economic concerns, 2025 delivered strong returns for investors, with stock markets notching fresh highs.
Escalating geopolitical conflicts, president Donald Trump’s rapidly moving tariff policies and fears an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble forming in markets were among the main drivers of turbulence in 2025.
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At the same time, enthusiasm around AI, forecast-beating earnings by a number of major companies, and central bank interest rate cuts, also propelled markets higher.
Max McKechnie, global market strategist at JPMorgan (JPM) Asset Management, said: “Risk-on sentiment drove an ‘everything rally’, and 2025 was the first year since the pandemic where all major asset classes delivered positive returns.”
He highlighted that emerging markets were the top-performing equity market in 2025, though precious metals were the “standout” asset class of last year.
Focusing on stock market gains specifically, the UK FTSE All-Share (^FTAS) delivered return of 24% last year, according to JPMAM’s 2025 review.
The MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) returned 34.4%, while MSCI Europe ex-UK delivered 20.1% in 2025 and the US S&P 500 (^GSPC) generated a return of 17.9%.
“2025 was a positive year for investors but also served as a reminder of the importance of diversification and currency exposure,” said McKechnie. “After a decade of US exceptionalism with returns concentrated in US technology stocks and boosted by an appreciating US dollar, 2025 saw the opposite as growth started to broaden out across the globe.”
Here’s more detail on some of the stocks that proved most popular in 2025, according to investment platform data.
Unsurprisingly, chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) featured on each of the most popular stock lists for UK investors using AJ Bell (AJB.L), Bestinvest, Interactive Investor and Robinhood UK’s (HOOD).
Nvidia became the world’s first public company to reach a $5tn market valuation last year, as its role as an enabler of AI and continued buzz around the technology drove shares higher.
The company did face some notable headwinds last year, such as the release of a cheap large language model by Chinese startup DeepSeek, as well as ongoing AI bubble concerns.
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Even so, investors have continued to back the AI trade, as Nvidia unveiled several deals with fellow tech giants and delivered strong earnings.
Dan Lane, investment content lead at Robinhood UK, said Nvidia had been the top of the platform’s list for most of the year, “reflecting its role as the backbone of the AI trade in 2025”.
“Will that change in 2026? It could, if the next stage of the AI story favours the broader beneficiaries over the hyperscalers or geopolitical curbs stymie further chip revenues,” he said.
Another member of the “Magnificent 7”, which proved popular with investors last year was electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA), featuring on AJ Bell, Interactive Investor and Robinhood UK’s lists.
The stock had a rocky start to the year, as the carmaker’s sales fell and backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s political activities sparked protests at Tesla facilities worldwide.
A public feud between the billionaire and US president Donald Trump, after Musk left his role steering the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE), also weighed on Tesla shares.
However, shares recovered later in the year, hitting a fresh high in December, as investors became more optimistic on the company following updates on its Robotaxi driverless vehicles.
In addition to tech, defence was also a key theme in 2025, with investors piling into major European names in the sector as governments pledged to spend more in this space.
That included aero-engineer Rolls-Royce (RR.L), which featured on the most popular stock lists of AJ Bell, Bestinvest and Interactive Investor.
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Rolls-Royce was among the top-performing FTSE 100 (^FTSE) stocks of last year, buoyed by strong results. In its most recent trading update, published in November, Rolls-Royce said that performance had been in line with expectations.
CEO Tufan Erginbilgic said that this gave the company further confidence in delivering on full-year guidance of underlying operating profit of between £3.1bn and £3.2bn.
Besides sector-focused themes, stocks offering an attractive level of income remained popular in 2025.
“Sectors come in and out of fashion, but income stocks tend to rank highly on investors’ shopping lists every single year,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. “The UK stock market is a rich hunting ground for dividend payers and the FTSE 100 has a wealth of names paying much higher levels of income than cash in the bank.”
He pointed out that financial services firm Legal & General (LGEN.L), which featured on the most popular stock lists of three platforms, is the highest yielding stock on the FTSE 100 with an 8.2% prospective yield.
“Based on our analysis of net buys and net flows on the investment platform during 2025, Legal & General stood tall above all other stocks,” said Coatsworth.
“Income investors look for sustainability of dividends, and for the payout to rise each year,” he said. “Life insurance might be a low growth sector, but the monthly premiums paid by customers means providers have a constant stream of cash flow to deploy in investments and to fund dividends to keep investors sweet.”
Income has also helped BP (BP.L) maintain its appeal to investors, with the oil major offering a dividend yield of 5.66%, according to Hargreaves Lansdown data.
In its third-quarter results, BP announced a dividend of 8.32 cents per share, up from 8 cents for the same period last year. The company has also continued to return cash to investors through the repurchase of shares, announcing a buyback worth $750m in the third quarter.
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That’s despite the company reporting lower profits in the third quarter. BP posted underlying replacement cost profit – its preferred measure for net income – of $2.21bn in for Q3, which was lower than the $2.35bn reported in the previous quarter and down from $2.27bn for the same period last year.
The sector has continued to come under pressure as oil prices have trended lower amid long-term concerns about oversupply in the market.
In a fourth-quarter trading update, published on Wednesday, BP warned that its full results for the period, due out on 10 February, are expected to include up to $5bn in writedowns, primarily related to its transition businesses.
Investors also continued to favour passively getting exposure to the world biggest companies through funds that track the performance of key indices.
Two examples, which appeared on the most popular funds lists of all four platforms in 2025, were Fidelity Index World (GB00BJS8SJ34.L) and Legal & General Global Technology Trust 0P000023MW.L (0P000023MW.L).
Kate Marshall, lead investment analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said index-tracking funds dominated the platform’s list “reflecting investors’ focus on broad diversification, low costs, and long-term exposure to global and US equity markets”.
“Technology remained a theme with investors focused on several mega-cap growth names, while the inclusion of some active funds points to selective appetite for differentiated stock-picking and income-focused approaches,” she said.
One active fund that appeared on three of the platform’s lists was Artemis Global Income (0P0000W36K.L), which has generated a return of 37.3% on a one-year basis.
The fund made it onto Bestinvest’s most-purchased list, along with Artemis UK Select (0P0000V25A.L), which has generated a one-year return of 25.7%.
Jason Hollands, managing director at Bestinvest by Evelyn Partners, said the fund “pursues a strategy of backing undervalued UK companies and it has done incredibly well for investors”.
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