Each year, the team at Business Maverick choose the top stocks we think are worth investing in over the next year. We ‘invested’ R10 per stock for 10 local stocks in December 2024 and ended on 17 December 2025 with R144.10: a portfolio return of 44.1% year on year. Over the same period, the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index gave investors a return of 36.7%.
There are those in our team who believe that the strategy must be to go deep and long on gold and copper in 2026. Any exposure to the two key commodities will already be tech stock picks by association, because the artificial intelligence (AI) and electrification booms rely on these precious metals at a component level. The gold price rocketed in 2025 to previously unheard-of highs, with $4,000 an ounce reached in October.
There will be dips and “corrections”, but gold’s immediate future looks so bright that it needs to wear shades. Political and economic uncertainty in the age of US President Donald Trump (which boosts the precious metal’s “safe haven” status), robust central bank demand (especially among emerging markets seeking to diversify from the dollar), and growing industrial uses (including for AI) are among the key factors that will underpin gold’s price even at elevated levels. JSE-listed producers of the precious metal such as Harmony Gold, Gold Fields, Sibanye-Stillwater and AngloGold Ashanti all stand to gain from this state of affairs, and their share prices to date have arguably not reflected gold’s astonishing rise.
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This brings us to the platinum group metals (PGM) producers. PGM prices have also rebounded from depressed levels and there will be ups and downs along the way. But years of underinvestment in South Africa – home to about 70% of known global reserves – point to a dwindling supply in coming years that will not meet expected demand.
This will be widespread given the astonishing range of applications for PGMs (including for the low-carbon “hydrogen economy”) that goes beyond emissions-capping catalysts for the internal combustion engine, whose obituaries are proving to be somewhat premature. Sibanye straddles both gold and PGMs and South Africa’s other major producers – Valterra Platinum, Northam Platinum and Impala Platinum – look set to ride the crest of rising prices with different strategies. Anchor Capital’s investment team hailed Valterra as a clear sector outlier, pointing out that its fully integrated model spanning mining, processing, refining and global marketing delivers industry-leading cost control and margin resilience.
“Mogalakwena … provides significant structural cost advantages, while technologies such as the Jameson cleaner circuit enhance all-in sustaining cost efficiency. Even after operational interruptions, including 1Q25 flooding at Amandelbult, management restored output ahead of schedule, demonstrating strong agility and discipline,” Anchor Capital said.
It pointed out that Valterra’s low net debt, ample liquidity and consistent dividend policy provide both stability and optionality. And because efficiency, mechanisation and disciplined capital allocation increasingly define sector leadership, Valterra is well positioned to convert a stabilising PGM backdrop into sustained margin uplift and stronger free cash flow generation.
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