Best Basic Materials Stocks in South Africa for 2026
Chemicals, metals and mining, and forestry and paper, screened with a Health-pillar tilt that favors companies built to survive a down cycle.
Basic Materials covers chemicals, metals & mining, and forestry/paper. Like Energy, the sector is cyclical and capital-intensive, so the Health pillar carries weight because companies surviving the bottom of the cycle on a clean balance sheet tend to do best as conditions normalise. Valuation should be read in the context of the cycle stage.
South Africa listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) span mining, banking, and consumer staples with a deep dual-listed bench. IFRS reporting in ZAR; composite scoring captures the dispersion between the rand-hedge mega-caps and the domestic-focused tail.
Data as of (updated daily)
Top 20 Basic Materials in South Africa by composite score
| # | Ticker | Name | Composite |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DRD.JSE | DRDGOLD Limited | 73.3 |
| 2 | HAR.JSE | Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. | 66.7 |
| 3 | GFI.JSE | Gold Fields Ltd | 65.5 |
| 4 | ART.JSE | Argent | 62.1 |
| 5 | IMP.JSE | Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd | 61.1 |
| 6 | SEP.JSE | Sephaku Holdings Ltd | 58.6 |
| 7 | MRF.JSE | Merafe | 57.8 |
| 8 | VAL.JSE | Valterra Platinum Limited | 57.5 |
| 9 | SSW.JSE | Sibanye Stillwater Ltd | 56.9 |
| 10 | NPH.JSE | Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd | 56.7 |
| 11 | EUZ.JSE | Europa Metals Ltd | 56.1 |
| 12 | PPC.JSE | PPC Ltd | 54.2 |
| 13 | ARI.JSE | African Rainbow Minerals Ltd | 53.9 |
| 14 | WEZ.JSE | Wesizwe | 52.7 |
| 15 | SOL.JSE | Sasol Ltd | 48.0 |
| 16 | PAN.JSE | Pan African Resources PLC | 46.2 |
| 17 | RNG.JSE | Randgold Exploration | 46.0 |
| 18 | MTU.JSE | Mantengu Mining Ltd. | 44.4 |
| 19 | YRK.JSE | York Timber Holdings Ltd | 44.2 |
| 20 | ACL.JSE | ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited | 42.9 |
Drill into Basic Materials stocks in South Africa
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Methodology: How we score stocks. Data refreshed nightly around 03:30 ET. This page lists the top 20 by composite score within the Basic Materials sector listed in South Africa; use the screener for the full ranked list.