The top 10 most popular stocks averaged a return of 67% over 2023

Personal finance website finder.com has been tracking the performance of the 10 stocks in a live chart throughout 2023, to find out which was the best investment.
 

• The top 10 most popular stocks in the UK averaged a combined return of 67% since the start of 2023.
• NVIDIA was the best-performing stock in the challenge, returning 226% since the start of 2023.
• Nio was the worst-performing stock in the challenge, losing 20% since the start of 2023.

Only 3 stocks from the top 10 have lost value

 
Only 3 out of the top 10 most popular stocks lost value since the start of 2023. In fact, the average return of an equally weighted portfolio of these 10 stocks, would have returned a staggering 67% by the 11th of December 2023. Meaning that an equally divided portfolio of £10,000 in the 10 stocks would have been worth £16,737.66 by the 11th of December 2023.

The 3 stocks that lost value are Nio, Alibaba and Paypal, losing 20%, 22% and 21% respectively.
 

NVIDIA eclipsed all other stocks

 
Perhaps unsurprisingly, NVIDIA eclipsed all rival stocks, returning 65 percentage points more than Meta, the next closest competitor.

Buying NVIDIA on the first market day of 2023, would have returned 226% by the 11th of December. This means that, over the course of one year, shareholders would have triple their initial investment. A £1,000 investment at the start of 2023 would have returned £3,257.21 by the 11th of December 2023.
 

Close race for second place between Meta and Tesla

 
Tech giant Meta and EV manufacturer Tesla competed for second best when it comes to investment returns. The two companies battled throughout the year and exchanged places multiple times. Meta took the lead around the end of September and this lead was solidified when Tesla’s shares slumped as a result of worse-than-expected Q3 financials in the middle of October.

Both stocks have yielded tremendous returns, with a fictitious £1,000 investment at the start of 2023 in Meta returning £2,607.66 by the 11th of December. The same investment in Tesla would have returned £2,217.76 over this period.
 

To see the full company investment challenge and live stock tracker visit: https://www.finder.com/uk/invest-in-sp-500#chart
 
Methodology:

The live chart tracks a fictitious investment of £1,000 on the first market day of 2023 in each of the 10 most popular stocks. The value of the investment is also adjusted for the USD/GBP exchange rate in real-time. Trading fees and extra charges are not included in the estimation of the values of the live chart.

The 10 stocks were chosen based on an eToro announcement at the end of 2022, which showed the most held stocks by their users.