Basic Materials Sector

Basic materials includes mining, metals, chemicals, building materials, fertilizers, paper, and forest products. The sector is home to names like Linde, Sherwin-Williams, Nucor, and Freeport. It is inherently cyclical, driven by global commodity prices and industrial demand — especially from China and emerging markets — and the dollar cycle. On this page we rank the best US basic-materials stocks by the EL7 Score and compare them across value, growth, quality, safety, and capital-return factors.

Sector performance via XLB

Basic Materials

EL7 Score

72Strong

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P/E 21.1 vs period average 19.9 Richer than its history

Total stocks307

Total Market Cap$3.3T

Median P/E21.1x

Median Net Margin5.2%

Value

Growth

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Best Stocks in Basic Materials

Ranked among 139 stocks with a market cap above $2B. Smaller companies are excluded from the ranking.

Rank	Company	Price	Change	P/E	Fwd P/E	Value	Growth	Quality	Safety	Capital Return	EL7 Score
1/139	KGCKinross Gold	$29.13	+0.7%	11.2	9.7	89	89	96	85	86	100
2/139	GFIGold Fields	$45.10	-1.3%	11.3	8.3	86	97	99	74	82	99
3/139	EROEro Copper	$35.47	+1.4%	11.9	7.6	86	92	85	67	88	99
4/139	IAGIamgold	$20.26	+0.8%	10.3	8.8	92	83	97	87	70	99
5/139	BVNCompañía de Minas	$34.04	+0.6%	7.7	8.2	91	91	85	79	88	99
6/139	BBarrick Mining	$43.68	+0.5%	11.2	9.6	89	90	90	82	41	98
7/139	FSMFortuna Mining	$11.99	-0.5%	10.0	7.3	92	89	95	82	29	98
8/139	CGAUCenterra Gold	$22.63	+0.1%	7.1	11.5	89	77	76	86	28	98
9/139	AUAngloGold Ashanti	$104.42	+0.5%	13.4	12.4	81	85	97	84	82	97
10/139	BTGB2Gold	$5.38	+0.4%	9.3	4.5	91	91	81	83	22	97

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Score = market-cap-weighted percentile rank of the sector stocks vs the whole market (0-100). Higher = stronger.

Industries in Basic Materials

ETFs with exposure to this sector

Funds that track the sector and each fund's exposure to it.

Fund	Exposure	Assets	Expense	Holdings
GDXVanEck Gold Miners ETF	100.0%	$30B	0.51%	57
VAWVanguard Materials ETF	88.0%	$4B	0.09%	115
XLBState Street Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF	84.9%	$8B	0.08%	25

The percentage is the sector's share of the fund's assets, per the latest available data.

AI Sector Summary

2026-09-11

The basic materials sector ranks fourth in the market with a score of 71.6, deriving its strength from high safety levels and notably positive sentiment despite weak capital returns. With a moderate valuation reflected by a median P/E ratio of 21.10, the sector demonstrates a balance between quality and momentum, with leading stocks such as KGC and GFI standing out.