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 Materials sector. These stocks -- which include companies from chemicals and metals and mining industries -- have clocked some of the biggest gains during the last month.

Materials Movers

Company

Industry

CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

30-Day
Return

Market Cap

International Royalty Corp (AMEX:ROY)

Metals and Mining

**

75.77 %

645.82M

ICO (NASDAQ:ICOC)

Chemicals

****

63.88%

198.64M

Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ:CENX)

Metals and Mining

****

 22.90%

1.33B

Almaden Minerals Ltd.

Metals and Mining

*****

40.81%

48.11M

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS)

Metals and Mining

*****

14.42%

351.15M

Those returns are certainly eye catching. But do these high fliers have staying power?

Let's see what The Motley Fool CAPS community (more than 145,000 investors strong) has to say about the best plays in the Materials market.

And the next big winners are...
The following 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 Materials Sector Favorites

Company

Industry

CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

Market Cap

Price / Earnings

Fools Saying Outperform

Grupo Simec S.A.B. de C.V. (ADR)
(AMEX:SIM)
(Alternative for ROY and CENX)

Metals and Mining

*****

1.4b

9.41

290 of 302

Nanophase Technologies Corp
(Alternative for ICOC)

Chemicals

*****

18.66M

NA

75 of 84

China Precision Steel, Inc.
(NASDAQ:CPSL)
(Alternative for AAU and ZEUS)

Metals and Mining

*****

98.18M

NA

661 of 683

Of course, some of today's winners might continue to rack up outsize 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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