Everyone knows the buy-the-dip drill by now. When the FTSE 100 or S&P 500 sells off sharply, that’s the time to go searching for shares.

However did UK buyers truly observe this mantra when the market tanked in early April? Or did they promote up and sit on the sidelines as an alternative?

In keeping with AJ Bell, UK buyers did in actual fact pile into shares on its platform. The info reveals that prospects shopping for investments outnumbered sellers by two to 1 between 3 and 10 April.

I discover this encouraging, as all of the research does certainly say that the very best time to snap up bargains is during times of maximum worry and uncertainty. And we acquired loads of that after President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ announcement — for almost per week, the one factor liberated in my portfolio was a variety of worth!

So, what have been AJ Bell’s DIY buyers shopping for throughout the carnage? Right here’s the highest 10 web buys within the first week after Trump’s bombshell.

My ideas

Authorized & Common and BP don’t shock me, as their dividend yields spiked to 9% and seven% respectively throughout the sell-off.

On the expansion facet, AI juggernaut Nvidia from the S&P 500 is hardly a shocker. For the file, I additionally added Nvidia to my ISA when the share price dropped beneath $100.

I can’t say I’m shocked to see Rolls-Royce additionally made the reduce (simply). The engine maker has been on the most-bought shares record virtually always for 2 years now. Nonetheless, this wasn’t one I used to be personally including to in early April.

Probably the most purchased UK inventory was Barclays, which is just a little little bit of a head-scratcher for me. Banks would seemingly see rising dangerous money owed throughout a worldwide recession, whereas the three%-ish yield would hardly present a lot solace.

Then once more, I’ve by no means owned Barclays shares, and subsequently missed out on the 100%+ rally that started in late 2023. And since bottoming out on 9 April, they’ve rebounded almost 23%. So, as issues stand, these savvy buyers have been proper to pile into the FTSE 100 financial institution.

Shopping for the haystack

As we are able to see although, the S&P 500 shares that buyers have been piling into was…all of them!

That’s as a result of the overwhelming majority of patrons have been investing in an S&P 500 tracker fund or international index (additionally dominated by US shares). The most well-liked was the Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF.

Subsequently, these buyers have been doing precisely what John Bogle, the founding father of Vanguard, as soon as suggested: “Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack.”

The S&P 500 is dominated by tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta. Nonetheless, every one has its personal dangers. For Apple, it’s going to be very pricey to maneuver its manufacturing base out of China. In the meantime, Meta’s digital promoting empire would seemingly endure throughout an financial downturn.

So the index isn’t out of the trade-war woods but, and will simply pull again sharply once more within the months forward.

Nonetheless, given their dominance, I’m not shocked that buyers are backing these tech giants to get well. Certainly, the S&P 500 index has already climbed 10.7% since 8 April — proving their bullishness right, a minimum of to this point.