March was another month marked by volatility, as US president Donald Trump pressed ahead with his tariff agenda.
Prior to Trump unveiling sweeping global tariffs on Wednesday, leading stock markets globally to plummet, the president's varying comments on levies in the run up to the announcement created plenty of nervousness among investors.
In the US, a bumpy March left the S&P 500 (^GSPC) down 13.7% year-to-date, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) index was 19.3% in the red. The UK's FTSE 100 (^FTSE), meanwhile, posted a smaller loss of 5.3% year-to-date.
Investors continued to flock to gold (GC=F) amid the uncertainty, seeing the precious metal end March on a fresh high, as it is considered to be a safe-haven investment, acting as a hedge against inflation.
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Higher government borrowing costs also continued to be a concern for the economy. Proposed changes Germany's debt rules by its incoming government to allow for higher defence spending, prompted a sell-off in its government bonds in early March. This sell-off spread to other bond markets, which saw yields – effectively the interest rate on these debt instruments – rise, meaning the cost of government borrowing went up.
This was one focus going into the UK's spring statement, with economists expecting that higher borrowing costs had eroded chancellor Rachel Reeves' £9.9bn fiscal headroom.
In a report released alongside the spring statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) judged that Reeves had managed to restore this buffer through changes announced in her economic update, such as spending cuts. However, the OBR halved its forecast for UK economic growth in 2025 to 1% from 2%, against a "more challenging and uncertain outlook than in autumn".
Here's the stocks and funds that were the most popular with investors amid this uncertainty.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "Bargain hunting and riding momentum waves were two central themes for interactive investor customers in March, as US equity markets dropped, and countries turned to inward-looking strategies in the face of rising geopolitical tensions."
Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) remained one of the most popular stocks with investors, appearing on Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L) and Robinhood's (HOOD) lists of most bought stocks in March.
That's despite shares slumping nearly 30% year-to-date, with the stock having struggled since the emergence of DeepSeek's lower-cost artificial intelligence (AI) model in January, which sparked concerns about the level of spending in the space by major US tech firms.
These concerns lingered going into Nvidia's fourth-quarter results in late February, in which it beat estimates on key metrics, though the company's expectations future gross profit margins left investors with some questions. Since then, the stock has been caught up in broader market volatility over fears around Trump's tariffs.
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Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said that his team think Nvidia shares have "been caught up in the wider pivot towards more defensive sectors. But it also reflects concerns about trade restrictions and the scale of future demand for Nvidia’s (NVDA) powerful computer processors".
"We’re encouraged by the innovations set out at the company’s recent developer conference," he said. "The group looks well positioned to retain its leadership in computing for AI as the focus moves from the training of models to reasoning in real-time or inference. While there are some meaningful rivals emerging in the inference space, Nvidia (NVDA) offers a compelling solution to its customers."
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Investors also appeared to have been using a slump in Tesla (TSLA) shares to buy the stock, as the electric vehicle (EV) maker came up on Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L) and Robinhood's (HOOD) lists in March.
The stock has tumbled 47% year-to-date, as data has shown falling Tesla (TSLA) sales across different countries, amid backlash against CEO Elon Musk over his political activities. There have been protests at Tesla (TSLA) facilities around the world against Musk and his role heading up the heading up Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseeing cuts to government agencies.
In fact, long-time Tesla (TSLA) bull Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, has slashed his price target on the stock by 43%, citing the impact of CEO Elon Musk's political activities and Donald Trump's trade policies.
"Tesla (TSLA) has essentially become a political symbol globally," Ives said in a report on Sunday, according to a Bloomberg report. "It is time for Musk to step up, read the room, and be a leader in this time of uncertainty."
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Using stocks as a proxy invest in cryptocurrencies continued to be popular among investors in March, as Strategy (MSTR) — formerly known as MicroStrategy — remained a top stock.
Strategy has amassed more than 500,000 bitcoin (BTC-USD), becoming the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency globally, according to the company's website.
The stock is down nearly 6% year-to-date, as its movements have started to be influenced by the those in bitcoin (BTC-USD), which is down 16% so far this year at $78,156.75.
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Dan Lane, lead market analyst at Robinhood UK, said: "MicroStrategy rose up the list of top buys on Robinhood UK in March.
"The tailend of March was a different story though, with MSTR taking a much heavier fall than BTC on nerves over the future of the crypto space and the tech sector in general," he said. "That didn’t dent Robinhood UK users’ appetite for the stock or for crypto pal Coinbase (COIN), which had a jumpy month but ended flatter after a late slump."
Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase (COIN) also appeared on Robinhood's March top stock buys list.
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Defence stocks appeared once again top bought stocks lists, following European governments' pledges to spend more in this space.
UK company BAE Systems (BA.L), which is up 31% year-to-date, appeared on the lists of Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L) and AJ Bell (AJB.L) for March.
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Fellow UK firms Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.L), QinetiQ (QQ.L) and Babcock International (BAB.L) also featured on some of the platforms' lists, along with German company Rheinmetall (RHM.DE).
AJ Bell (AJB.L) investment analyst Dan Coatsworth said: "The defence sector was red hot during March, judging by the most popular shares and funds on the AJ Bell platform.
“The prospect of greater government spending on areas like cybersecurity and intelligence implies a richer pipeline of earnings opportunities for defence contractors."
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (TW.L) featured on the top-bought stocks lists of Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L) and AJ Bell (AJB.L) for March.
Interactive Investor's Hunter cited the "usual attraction of high-yielding blue-chip stocks".
He pointed out that the shares yield "8.75% even after a cut in December, while also offering the possibility of a turnaround should the housing sector continue to improve as is widely hoped".
Fund data also showed that UK investors bought the dip in US stocks in March. Global funds index Calastone found that UK investors added a net £1.77bn to their North American equity fund holdings in March, which was the strongest month for inflows since March 2024 and the third best on record.
Most of this cash went into funds exclusively focused on the US and investors overwhelmingly opted for index trackers, according to Calastone.
Passive funds — index funds and ETFs tracking an index — continued to feature heavily on Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L) and AJ Bell's (AJB.L) most popular funds lists.
As mentioned by Coatsworth, defence was a key theme for AJ Bell's (AJB.L) investors. "We typically see one or two 'hot' areas of the market attract attention at any one time — for the past few years it has been weight-loss drugs and artificial intelligence," he said. "The baton has now been passed to the defence sector and investors increasingly have greater choice as more thematic ETFs (exchange-traded funds) continue to be launched in this space."
HanETF Future of Defence ETF (NATO.L), WisdomTree Europe Defence ETF and Vaneck Defense ETF (DFNS.L) featured on AJ Bell's (AJB.L) list of most popular funds.
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Meanwhile, despite volatility around US markets and technology stocks, Magnificent 7 companies were among the top holdings on many of the funds featured on the lists.
That included the Fidelity Index World (0P000125KV.L) fund, which featured on both platforms' lists. The fund aims to track the performance of the MSCI World index is down 1.74% over the past year but has generated a return of 14.3% annualised over five years.
Aside from investors continuing to back some of the world's largest companies to deliver returns, AJ Bell's (AJB.L) list also pointed to some efforts to balance market risk amid volatility. Royal London's Short Term Money Market (0P0000NRQO.L) fund, which is 89% invested in cash, and the iShares Physical Gold (SGLN.L) exchange-traded commodity (ETC), were among the top funds.
While the top investment lists for March show investors have used slumps in tech stocks as a buying opportunity, the presence of other sectors, such as defence, suggests efforts to expand their exposure.
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