Chasing highfliers is a sucker's game. But tracking monthly trends across the market can lead to great investment ideas, as well as shed new light on stocks you already have in your portfolio.

Let's take a look at the biggest movers in the Basic Materials. These stocks -- which include companies from oil, gas, and consumable fuels; chemicals; and energy equipment and service sectors -- have turned in some of the biggest gains during the last month.

Basic Material market movers

Company

Industry

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

30-Day Return

Market Cap

Price / Earnings

Ivanhoe Energy (NASDAQ:IVAN)

Oil, gas, and consumable fuels

**

19.32%

965.21M

N/A

Uranerz Energy (NYSE:URZ)

Oil, gas, and consumable fuels

*

22.05%

109.13M

N/A

Terra Industries (NYSE:TRA)

Chemicals

****

22.33%

4.1B

12.89

Houston American Energy (NASDAQ:HUSA)

Oil, gas, and consumable fuels

*

64.16%

308.18M

N/A

Those returns are certainly eye-catching. But do these highfliers have staying power?

Let's see what The Motley Fool CAPS community (more than 150,000 investors strong) has to say about the best plays in the Basic Materials market.

And the next big winners are ...
The following Basic Material stocks are of similar size in comparable industries to the ones in the previous chart. However, these are companies CAPS members think have more promising future returns than the ones already making waves.

CAPS community Basic Material favorites

Company

Industry

CAPS Rating

Market Cap

Price / Earnings

Fools Saying Outperform

Williams Pipeline Partners (NYSE: WMZ)

(Alternative to IVAN)

Oil, Gas, and Consumable Fuels

*****

952.58M

18.58

72 of 74

TransMontaigne Partners (NYSE: TLP)

(Alternative to URZ and HUSA)

Oil, Gas, and Consumable Fuels

*****

287.78M

14.32

192 of 194

Braskem (NYSE: BAK)

(Alternative to TRA)

Chemicals

*****

3.7B

N/A

281 of 293

Of course, some of today's winners might continue to rack up outsized returns. But isn't it better to snag tomorrow's winners before they start running up?

Find out if your hot stocks still have sizzle
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