10 hottest ISA shares, funds and trusts: week ended 9 January 2026

We look at the investments ii customers have been buying within their ISAs during the previous week. The data includes only real-time trades, not regular investing instructions, and combines the use of both existing funds and new money.

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Top 10 shares in ISAs

BP (LSE:BP.) takes the top spot in the list ofmost-bought stocks in ISAs on the ii platform for the second time in three weeks. Deposed by Diageo last time, a drop to prices not seen since October has drawn buyers back, sending the oil major six places higher.

Investors were initially concerned about the impact of President Donald Trump’s activities in Venezuela and plans to import up to $2 billion (£1.5 billion) of Venezuelan crude into the US. There are already concerns about oversupply, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) currently languishing at less than $60 a barrel and close to a four-year low.

Analysts currently predict a surplus of up to 3 million barrels of oil per day in the first half of 2026, although Goldman Sachs expects further volatility amid geopolitical risks including Russia and Iran. It believes WTI could trade as low as $50 a barrel later this year before a recovery begins in 2027. 

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Shell (LSE:SHEL) joins the oil party, one of three new entries in the top 10 this week as its share price fell to a six-month low. 

Tesco (LSE:TSCO) is the highest new entry, in at number three after shares fell to a five-month low and 14% from November’s near-record high. The tumble followed third-quarter results which included a disappointing contribution from the Booker wholesale business, plus conservative guidance for annual adjusted operating profit at the higher end of the £2.9 billion to £3.1 billion range.

Despite this, the country’s largest supermarket still grew market share to 28.7%, it’s best in over a decade. Like-for-like sales grew 3.1% for the quarter and 2.4% over Christmas.

BAE Systems (LSE:BA.) is also in the list having dropped to number 11 the previous week. Already flying high as governments worldwide increase defence spending, shares raced back to record levels. Investors reacted to fresh comment from Trump that the US military budget should be boosted by 50% to $1.5 trillion. That’s only good news for BAE which does almost half its business in the US. 

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Stocks dropping out of the list this week are Fresnillo, down to 11th place, Taylor Wimpey and Filtronic.

Top 10 funds and trusts in ISAs

Royal London Short Term Money Mkt Y Acc has given up its place as the weekly ISA bestseller, ending a six-month spell at the top of the table.

The fund, which offers cash-like returns, has fallen to second place, displaced by the US-light Artemis Global Income I Acc, which returned roughly 45% in 2025.

The reshuffle partly reflects the sheer strength of returns from the Artemis fund, which takes the top spot for the first time. But there’s also a chance that the Royal London fund, and cash funds in general, could lose their shine as interest rates fall.

The Bank of England cut the rate to 3.75% in December and returns from cash funds (and cash accounts) have reduced in turn.

Investors could well now look to seemingly safe assets which pay out higher amounts, such as bonds, or even turn to riskier assets.

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We’ve noted that Artemis is enjoying a moment in the sun, and another of its strong performers crops up in the list this week.

Artemis SmartGARP European Equity, which uses a proprietary screening tool to identify stock picks, returned roughly 56% last year and has a big allocation to financials, moves into the table in eighth place. The UK offering from the same franchise, Artemis SmartGARP UK Eq I Acc GBP, sits just outside the table in 15th place.

There’s the usual presence of global equity trackers (and one of Vanguard’s LifeStrategy funds) in the list, plus two very different investor favourites in the form of adventurous global growth fund Scottish Mortgage Ord (LSE:SMT) and steady UK income play City of London Ord (LSE:CTY).

Elsewhere, it’s interesting to see two investment trusts with very different runs of performance in the top five.

With geopolitical strife back on the agenda, shares in Seraphim Space Investment Trust Ord (LSE:SSIT), many of whose holdings have been busy signing defence contracts, have returned almost 9% so far in 2026. That has pushed the shares on to a premium to net asset value (NAV), which at one point reached almost 18% last week but has since moderated to around the 9% mark.

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Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW), which has been in the wars amid a challenging few years for the renewable energy infrastructure sector, moves up to fourth place. It’s likely that investors still spy a bargain here, given that the shares trade on a roughly 31% discount and come with a dividend yield of more than 10%.

There are plenty of big yields now available in that sector, although this may suggest investors are sceptical about how sustainable they are. NextEnergy Solar Ord (LSE:NESF) shares now come with a yield just shy of 17%, for example.

Funds and trusts section written by Dave Baxter, senior fund content specialist at ii.