Resource stocks are top picks in Moneyweb Investor Challenge

After an unprecedented year where resource shares, chiefly gold and platinum stocks, propelled the JSE to record highs, it is somewhat of a surprise to see that many entrants in the Moneyweb Investor Challenge still believe these counters have further to go, despite seeing triple-digit returns in 2025.

The competition has received over 900 entries from readers, listeners, Insider Gold members, as well as staff and contributors.

The challenge requires entrants to select five of the top 200 listed companies on the JSE (preference shares, exchange-traded funds, exchange-traded notes, and any suspended instruments are excluded).

Share price performance, on an equally weighted basis (with each share comprising 20% of a portfolio), will be tracked between 1 February and 31 December to determine the eventual winner(s).

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Narrowly pipping Capitec Bank to the top spot, in terms of being selected by the most participants, was multinational mining group Sibanye-Stillwater, which was selected by nearly one in five entrants. Perennial retail investor favourite Sasol is third.

The other resource shares in the top 20 include AngloGold Ashanti, Valterra Platinum, Gold Fields, Afrimat, Orion Minerals, Pan African Resources, Copper 360, Impala Platinum and Harmony Gold Mining.

A further three resource stocks (Glencore, DRDGold and Anglo American) can be included if one looks at the top 25. BHP barely makes the top 40 selection on this basis.

Prosus and Naspers are both in the top 10 selections, with most preferring exposure via the latter.

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It has a smaller market capitalisation (R734 billion) than Prosus (R2 trillion), but given their corporate structure, they tend to move in relative lockstep. The former is down 17.04% year-to-date, while the decline for the latter is 16.96%.

The other share in the top 10 by number of selections is Purple Group – the owner of EasyEquities – which, like its platform, has amassed a strong retail following.

Holders of Purple shares doubled their money last year.

The four other shares to round out the top 20 include three retailers – Mr Price Group, Shoprite Holdings and Pepkor – as well as Aspen Pharmacare.

Interestingly, a portfolio of the five most-selected shares (Sibanye-Stillwater, Capitec, Sasol, AngloGold Ashanti and Purple Group) is barely positive (+0.55%) nearly two weeks into the competition.

Listen: What to except from SA Inc in 2026

Based on selections for this competition alone, the pick of the traditional ‘big four’ banks is Absa, followed by Standard Bank Group and FirstRand (each chosen by around 5% of participants).

Aside from Afrimat, not many other ‘SA Inc’ shares that underperformed last year were among the top picks.

TFG, Kap, Metair and Truworths all ended 2025 around 40% (or more) lower. Kap was the 50^th most-selected stock by competitors, with TFG not that far behind. Truworths was well outside the top 100, and Metair outside the top 150 with less than a handful of participants adding it to their hypothetical portfolio.

Read: Resources rally takes JSE to new high

You’d be hard-pressed to imagine either of these shares repeating such a performance next year. This means one could go sifting through the other end of the performance table for a likely winner.

A number of so-called ‘SA Inc’ industrials, including TFG, Kap, Metair and Truworths were all about 40% (or more) down in the year. Afrimat was also down by around that amount, while junior producer Copper 360 (which listed in 2023) was about 70% lower.

The live leaderboard for the competition can be viewed here.

Logged-out users will see the current top 10, while logged-in free users will only see the top 100 entries as well as their own portfolio ranking (if they have entered). Logged-in Insider Gold users will be able to view the full leaderboard, each entry’s picks, as well as insights into the top community portfolios and best-performing shares.

Tough market conditions so far in February have made for an interesting start, with the top two entrants managing boasting returns of just more than 7%.

Only 350 of the 940 entrants are showing positive returns at this stage.

The winner(s) of the Moneyweb Investor Challenge will be announced in January 2027. Regular updates will be published on Moneyweb throughout the year.

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