Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland)
Tomasz Walkowicz & team UBS
Tomasz Bardzi⁄lowski & team UniCredit
third team Andrzej Knigawka, Janos Kocsi & team ING
runners-up Radoslaw Bodys & team BofA—Merrill Lynch; Citi; Tomasz Krukowski & team Deutsche

Unranked last year, the seven-strong UBS squad captained by newcomer Tomasz Walkowicz, 35, shoots straight to the top, sharing the winner’s circle with last year’s No. 2 team, the 12-analyst UniCredit Global Research troupe. Declares one fan of the UBS analysts, who are based in London and Zurich, “They keep me up-to-date when things happen.” A lot was happening last year, as worldwide economic turmoil wrought havoc in Central Europe, dragging the Czech Republic’s stock market down 41.7 percent, Hungary’s down 58.5 percent and Poland’s down 47.2 percent. Many of the team’s most successful calls were bearish, such as a January 2008 recommendation to sell Polish petrochemicals manufacturer Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen, at...