We Fools like to look at the kinds of shares that ASX investors have been buying in recent weeks. Not only does it give an insight into what the market finds 'hot' right now, but it's also just plain interesting. Yesterday, my Fool colleague James Mickleboro looked at the top ASX shares investors have been buying recently.
So today, we're going to be checking out the most traded international shares. The data comes from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA)'s CommSec brokering platform and covers the period from 3–7 August. Since CommSec is the most widely used broker in the country, I think its data gives us a good snapshot of the entire ASX investing community.
Most popular international shares:
1) Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Taking out the crown last week was the one and only Apple, famous for its iPhone line as well as its Mac and iPad products. Apple reported some mind-blowing numbers on 30 July, which included an 11% year-on-year increase in revenue. That's a big deal for a ~US$1.9 trillion company and is probably why ASX investors were keen to get their hands on Apple shares. The announced 4-for-1 stock split probably didn't hurt either.
2) Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
The old Apple–Microsoft rivalry is continuing on the CommSec servers it seems. Yes, the purveyor of the Windows operating system and the Office suite can't be held down it seems. Although Microsoft has already run up more than 30% this year, it seems ASX investors don't mind at all.
3) Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA)
Never far from the headlines this one, Tesla (of course) makes this week's list at number 3. Shares of Elon Musk's electric car and battery manufacturer has seemingly stopped climbing (for now) after rising around 350% between March and July. Although 1 Tesla share will set Aussies back nearly $2,000, that doesn't seem to have got in investors' way last week.
4) Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)
Speaking of expensive shares, it's only fitting that this eCommerce juggernaut slid in at fourth place last week. Amazon shares continue to defy gravity at more than $US3,000 (A$4,200) each. But again, that doesn't seem to bother Aussie investors, who can't get enough of the Bezos, it seems. And that's despite a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 121 and a market capitalisation of more than US$1.5 trillion.
5) Square Inc. (NASDAQ: SQ)
Last but not least, we have payments company Square. Square was founded by Twitter's Jack Dorsey, who remains CEO. Aussies might not be familiar with this company, but its card readers and Cash app are very popular over in the USA. Square shares are also popular with investors right now, perhaps as a result of the company exploding from around US$40 a share in March to around US$140 today. Too late to invest? Clearly ASX investors don't think so.
