Top 10 most-popular investment funds: May 2026

Money market funds’ above-inflation yields earned with minimal risk continue to exert a strong pull for retail investors, with Royal London Short Term Money Mkt Y Acc remaining in the top spot in our top 10 table of most-bought funds, according to the number of buys during the month, with regular investing excluded.

As Dave Baxter, our senior fund content specialist observed in our latest On the Money podcast episode, “Because there’s so much that people have to be concerned about, whether it’s the [Iran war] ceasefire, interest rates rising, inflation...perhaps people are just thinking that they want to put some money to the side and not take that investment risk at the minute, and [money market funds are] an efficient and attractively yielding place to put it.”

The yield on the Royal London fund is currently around 4%, outstripping April’s UK inflation reading, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which came in at 2.8%. The fund’s yield is closely tied to the Bank of England base rate, and should interest rates rise, the yield will also increase. 

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Craig Rickman, interactive investor’s personal finance editor, recently examined the impact of rumoured details about a key ISA policy change. Rickman writes: “According to a recent article published in The Telegraph, from April 2027 cash held within a stocks & shares ISA or innovative finance ISA will face a tax charge of 22%. The tax is also set to be levied on cash-like investments such as money market funds.”

If this plan comes to fruition, there could be an exodus from money market funds, as tax-savvy investors look for a new home for their money.

Meanwhile, the pattern of passive strategies dominating the top 10 endured in May, but another actively managed strategy broke into the top 10, taking the total number of funds overseen by a professional investor to three. The £15.5 billion Polar Capital Global Tech I Inc GBP fund, entered the top 10 in 10th place. 

Despite a background of ongoing concern over valuations, this fund has enjoyed blockbuster performance on the back of the tech rally and seemingly unlimited bullish sentiment for the sector amid the promise of AI. Its total returns figures over the usual one, three and five years periods are 150%, 261.3% and 261% respectively.

Top holdings include the $5 trillion (£3.8 trillion) computer chip maker NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), which reported yet another set of beat and raise results this month; Google parent Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU). The latter has enjoyed a spell of eye-popping share price performance of late, as our head of investment Victoria Scholar reported, “with the chipmaker surging 225% since the start of January and more than 860% over the past 12 months” on the back of broker upgrades. 

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Another pure-play tech fund in the top 10 that investors have long favoured is the strongly performing L&G Global Technology Index I Acc (B0CNH16), ranked in sixth place.

Value-focused Artemis Global Income I Acc (B5ZX1M7) is the other active name in May’s top 10. With its notably lower exposure to the US, the fund has delivered strong gains for investors and returned 53.4%, 161.5% and 164%over the usual one, three and five-year periods.

Multi-asset strategies from Vanguard, namely Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity A Acc (B4PQW15), Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity A Acc (B41XG30) and Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity A Acc (B3TYHH9), ranked fifth, seventh and eighth respectively, while a trio of low-cost global trackersVanguard FTSE Global All Cp Idx £ Acc (BD3RZ58)(second), HSBC FTSE All-World Index C Acc (BMJJJF9) (third), and Fidelity Index World P Acc (BJS8SJ3) (ninth)make up the rest of the top 10 table.

Top 10 most-popular funds in May 2026

Source: interactive investor. Performance data to 1 June 2026. Note: the top 10 is based on the number of “buys” during the month of May. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Most-bought active funds

There are two new entries in the most-bought active funds list. 

One, Artemis SmartGARP Glb EM Eq I Acc GBP, entered in eighth place. As at 30 April, the fund’s largest holding was Samsung Electronics Co Ltd DR at a chunky 10%. 

Other names in the top 10 include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR, SK Hynix, Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras ADR and Chinese car manufacturer Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. 

Asia is considered one way to play the AI theme, with companies in the region having a vital role via manufacturing products in the AI supply chain, as our recent feature looking at the rally in emerging markets examined.

The fund’s three biggest sector weightings are to technology (27.5%), financials (20.1%) and materials (13.5%), while for geographic exposure, China is the biggest weighting at 26.2%, followed by South Korea at 22.7%, and Taiwan at 13.3%.

Some investors may be cautious on such a hefty exposure to the South Korean tech behemoth Samsung and/or China, given the political risk.

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The other new fund in the active rankings is the hedged income share class of the Polar Capital Global Tech I GBP Hdg Inc (BW9HD62) fund, which entered the top 10 in sixth place. 

Investors buy hedged share classes to mitigate currency risk. Hedging means that investors in Britain experience the same percentage increase in their fund as local investors, with no reduction or advantage from currency swings.

Sometimes, hedged share classes are more expensive but this tech fund charges the same fee of 1.08% on its hedged share class as it does for one of its unhedged share classes, Polar Capital Global Tech I Inc GBP, which is ranked in third place.

WS Blue Whale Growth R Sterling Acc (BD6PG78) is another technology name investors are gravitating towards, while both the distribution and accumulating versions of Artemis Global Income make the top 10 again.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of money market strategies Vanguard Stlg S/T Mny Mkts A GBP Acc (BFYDWM5) fund and Fidelity Cash W Acc (BD1RHT8) fund, which as explained above, are appealing to investors for a variety of reasons.

Top 10 most-bought active funds May 2026