UK investors snapped up high street bargains in 2025: Greggs, Sainsbury’s and WHSmith among top breakout stocks on IG platform

UK retail investors flocked to British high street names in 2025, with several of our best-known retailers among the top breakout stocks of the year on the IG investing and trading platform.

IG analysed customer data from across the past 12 months, identifying both the most widely held global stocks on its platform and those that recorded the sharpest proportional increase in investors.

While this year’s breakout list (see Table 1) predictably included a number of technology names – with quantum-related firms featuring heavily – it was also notable for the presence of UK household names such as Sainsbury’s, Greggs and WHSmith.

In 2025, Sainsbury’s saw a remarkable 156% increase in the number of IG customers holding the stock, with anyone who bought in April enjoying significant share price gains.

The UK’s favourite bakery, Greggs, also saw a sharp rise in popularity, with the number of IG users holding the stock jumping 148%. Many investors appear to have been buying the dip in a company that has struggled performance-wise this year. 

A similar pattern was evident at WHSmith – despite the share price falling more than 40% in 2025, the number of IG holders increased by 123%. Marks & Spencer trailed these three but still recorded impressive growth, with a 76% increase in the number of customers holding the stock.

Looking at the most popular holdings overall (see Table 2), aerospace and defence group Rolls-Royce climbed from ninth place to become the fourth most held stock on the IG platform, overtaking US tech giants including Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet.

Budget airline easyJet also broke into the top ten after seeing a 20% increase in the number of IG customers holding the stock. Its competitor IAG, owner of British Airways, retained its position as the eighth most held company on the platform. In total, four of the ten most commonly held stocks among IG customers were FTSE-listed, with Lloyds Banking Group taking seventh place.

Table 1: Stocks which saw biggest proportional rise and fall in investors in 2025 on IG platform

Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at IG said: “The Magnificent Seven have dominated headlines for the past few years, their valuations surging on the back of AI fever. But while US tech grabbed the attention, British stocks have quietly attracted solid interest from investors on IG’s platform, a reminder that quality companies aren’t the exclusive preserve of Silicon Valley.

“The numbers tell an interesting story. The FTSE 100 has actually outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year, returning 20.5% versus 15.6%, with the latter only up some 8.6% if priced in sterling. Some of that relative strength came from international flows following tariff announcements earlier this year, but it’s also worth noting that UK investors themselves have been putting more money to work at home rather than automatically chasing US names.

“Whether this marks a genuine turning point or just a temporary shift remains to be seen. The FTSE’s gains have been helped by currency moves and energy stocks, not just a sudden renaissance in British corporate performance. But after years of underperformance, any period where UK equities hold their own against US indices deserves attention.”

Table 2: Most held stocks on the IG platform and how the ranking changed in 2025