Why Your Halal Fund Is Full of Gold Miners: The FTSE/JSE Shariah Indices Explained

Open the fact sheet of almost any South African halal equity product and the same names stare back: AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Impala Platinum, Anglo American, Sasol. New investors often assume their fund manager is making an aggressive bet on mining. Mostly, the manager is not making a bet at all; the Shariah screens are. Understanding the two indices behind SA halal equity explains the sector tilt, the volatility, and why passive and active halal funds behave so differently.

The two benchmarks

The FTSE/JSE Africa index series includes two Shariah benchmarks: the FTSE/JSE Shariah Top 40 Index, the compliant subset of the Top 40, and the broader FTSE/JSE Shariah All Share Index. Screening is performed by Yasaar Limited, the independent Shariah consultancy retained across FTSE Russell's global Islamic index franchise. The methodology works in two passes: business-activity screens first (out go conventional financial services, alcohol, non-halal food production, tobacco, weapons and similar), then financial-ratio screens covering debt levels and interest-bearing assets. Reviews run quarterly, so constituents enter and exit as their business mix and balance sheets change.

What the screens remove, and what that leaves

Here is the structural fact that shapes everything: banks and insurers are among the largest weights in the conventional JSE indices, and the business-activity screen removes essentially all of them. Highly geared industrials fall to the ratio screens. What survives is resources and selected industrials, which is why screened SA portfolios lean so hard on gold and platinum miners. The January 2026 Alexforbes Shariah High Growth fact sheet shows it in one line: top holdings led by AngloGold Ashanti (6.4%), Gold Fields (6.2%), MTN (4.1%) and Valterra Platinum (3.7%). This is not a fund manager's view on commodities; it is what Regulation 28 compliant, JSE-screened Shariah equity looks like by construction.

The behavioural consequence

The Shariah Top 40 behaves like a concentrated factor portfolio relative to the conventional Top 40: it outperforms strongly in resource rallies and lags in financial-led markets. The year to mid-2026 was the good side of that trade, with the index tracker up around 28% on the resources run. The 2010s showed the other side. For investors this means two practical things. First, judge halal funds against halal benchmarks or each other, never against conventional category averages that hold the banks your fund cannot own; there is no ASISA Shariah category, so the rankings you see in newspapers mix the two. Second, expect tracking difference between passive and active: diversified active funds deliberately deviate from the index's concentration, including through offshore allocations, so they will trail in miner-driven rallies and defend better when the cycle turns.

The one product that tracks them

Exactly one listed product tracks these indices: the Satrix Shari'ah Top 40 ETF (STXSHA), running since April 2009 at a 0.40% TER, the sole Shariah exchange-traded product on the JSE after FNB's Islamic exchange-traded notes delisted. Index-level screening is its whole compliance model: credible and published, but with no fund-level scholar board and no purification reporting, as we detail in the full STXSHA review.

How to invest around the skew

• Accept the tilt knowingly if you buy the ETF: you are holding a resources-heavy factor portfolio, not a market proxy.
• Dilute it with global Shariah exposure: MSCI World Islamic-benchmarked sleeves and rand-denominated global feeders carry entirely different sector mixes.
• Use active funds for the diversification the index cannot manufacture: Camissa, Oasis and Sentio all run portfolios that deviate meaningfully from the screened Top 40.
• Remember the defensive sleeve is a separate problem the equity indices do not address at all; sukuk funds solve it (see our sukuk guide).

The screens are not a flaw; they are the point. But a compliant portfolio built without understanding what screening does to sector weights is a portfolio that will surprise its owner at the worst moment. Compare the actual products on our investing page and the providers on the Halal Money Index.

Quick answers

Who decides what is in the Shariah indices?

Yasaar Limited, the independent consultancy retained across FTSE Russell's global Islamic index franchise, applies the screens: business-activity exclusions first, then financial-ratio tests on debt and interest-bearing assets. Reviews run quarterly, so constituents enter and exit as balance sheets change.

Why does my halal fund hold so many miners?

Because the screens remove the JSE's banks and insurers wholesale and cut highly geared industrials, leaving resources and selected industrials as the surviving universe. The concentration is structural, not a fund manager's commodity bet, and it is why active halal funds deliberately deviate from the index using offshore sleeves and stock selection.

Can I invest in the indices directly?

One product tracks them: the Satrix Shari'ah Top 40 ETF (STXSHA), running since April 2009 at a 0.40% TER, the sole Shariah exchange-traded product on the JSE. Buying it means accepting the index's concentration knowingly, as a factor portfolio rather than a market proxy.

Should I compare halal funds to newspaper rankings?

No. There is no ASISA Shariah category, so published rankings mix conventional funds holding the banks your fund cannot own. Judge halal funds against halal benchmarks or each other; anything else measures the screens, not the manager.