FTSE 100 listed platform Hargreaves Lansdown has seen a 24 per cent increase in customers investing in stocks and shares via its monthly savings plan.
The Bristol-based business said it had 74,010 clients in its monthly savings stocks and shares Isa at the end of November 2017, a 24 per cent increase compared with November 2016, and a 40 per cent increase on the number in January 2016.
The average monthly amount invested by Hargreaves Lansdown clients via its monthly savings plan was £312 in November 2017, an increase of £8 on the figure in January 2017.
The company said the most popular fund with investors using the monthly savings plan is the £13.4bn Fundsmith Equity fund, which is the absolute top performer in the IA Global sector over the past three and five years to 3 January.
Mark Barnett’s £10bn Invesco Perpetual High Income fund is next most popular, while both of the unit trusts run by Neil Woodford, the £8.2bn Woodford Equity Income fund and the £736m Woodford Income Focus fund are ninth and tenth most popular.
All three of those funds have suffered in performance terms over the past year, with the managers trailing their sector average and both positioning for a better performance from the UK economy than is currently the consensus view of the market.
david.thorpe@ft.com
