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Nomura Holdings tops Institutional Investor's China equity research poll

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-13 14:37

Nomura Holdings Inc was ranked first in China research by Institutional Investor magazine's inaugural All-China Research Team ranking.

The Tokyo-based company won 14 total team positions, beating Citigroup Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which tied for second position, the magazine said on its website. BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research was in fourth place, followed by Deutsche Bank AG, according to the magazine.

Chinese stocks are the worst performers in Asia this year, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling 24 percent on concern government efforts to curb inflation and property speculation will slow the world's third-largest economy. Nomura's chief Asian equity strategist Sean Darby said on June 23 the brokerage was turning positive on China's yuan-denominated shares for the first time this year.

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"With China offering such enviable economic performance but so much uncertainty over the impact of present and future policy changes on the nation's equity markets, it's not surprising that investors are clamoring for research and insight into what has become arguably the world's most important economy," Institutional Investor said.

Nomura's Jiong Shao was the top-ranked analyst for industrials research while Yankun Hou also came in first for consumer discretionary stocks. The brokerage also had four analysts ranked second in their respective industries, one coming in third, as well as seven runner-ups, according to the magazine.

Citigroup, Goldman Sachs

Citigroup had four analysts ranked first, the most among the 13 brokerages in the poll, including Pierre Lau for utilities research as well as Oscar Choi for property. The New York-based brokerage had nine total team positions, the same as Goldman Sachs.

Deutsche Bank's Jun Ma was top-ranked for economics research, followed by Nomura's Sun Mingchun and Morgan Stanley's Qing Wang. Among equity strategists, Frank Li of JPMorgan Chase & Co came in first, according to the poll. He was trailed by David Cui of BofA Merrill and Thomas Deng of Goldman Sachs.

The results were based on responses from 1,300 investment professionals at more than 560 institutions that managed about $704 billion in Chinese equities, the magazine said. Foreign investors' access to the nation's yuan-denominated, or A shares, is limited mainly through the qualified foreign institutional investor program.