The US stocks Aussie investors were buying in June

Aussie investors who have an eye on US markets were deep in tech, aviation, automotive manufacturers and entertainment stocks in June.

The top stocks on global trading platform eToro were, in order, Tesla, Apple, Tesla’s Chinese rival Nio Inc, Boeing, and Facebook.

Also in the top 10 were Hertz, as people bought into the stock as a bizarre bankruptcy play, American Airlines as what now appears to be a premature re-opening punt, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney.

Rival trading platform Stake, which allows Australian and New Zealand investors to buy US stocks, says its investors’ top pick was also Tesla, followed by Inovia, Facebook, Apple and the soon to be delisted leveraged debt security the TVIX which tracked the VIX, or fear index.

Cars and planes

eToro analyst Josh Gilbert said Tesla was up 22 per cent in June, breaching $1000 a share and surpassing Toyota’s market cap.

“A new stock sale before the pandemic allowed Tesla to raise over $2bn in cash, which was a key move in hindsight as most of its warehouses worldwide were closed during the fallout of the pandemic,” he said.

Nio is being bought as Tesla 2.0, its share price jumping 68 per cent in June thanks to technology company Tencent increasing its holdings to 15 per cent.

“The aviation sector has been seen as an undervalued area of the market since early March with retail investors picking up shares in the likes of Boeing and American Airlines at record low prices,” Gilbert said.

“Boeing saw a surge in early June as restrictions worldwide were eased.

“American Airlines also saw a surge in price at the start of June, jumping more than 80 per cent as the airliner announced it would begin domestic flights across the US.

“The company was able to steady its cash flow, raising more than $4.5bn through convertible bonds and share issuance.

“As COVID-19 cases continued to soar in the US, American Airlines share price subdued towards the end of June, finishing just 14 per cent up for the month after a bullish start.”

Aussies bone up on their investing education

The surge among Australians investing in stocks continues, as investment app Raiz (ASX:RZI) said yesterday its retail funds under management rose 5.4 per cent in June, taking the 12 month increase to 28 per cent.

Budget broker Selfwealth (ASX:SWF) said trading volumes hit another record in the June quarter of 340,000, up 112 per cent on the March quarter.

Just over 14,000 new active traders joined the platform in the last three months, although March is still the strongest month it’s seen for new sign ups.

Selfwealth has now seen six consecutive months of record trading volumes.

The company tapped the market in early March, just before the carnage reached its nadir for $3m priced at 14c a share.

The stock is now worth 58c.