< The 2015 All-Asia Research Team

Total appearances: 16

Team debut: 1997Anil Agarwal and his Morgan Stanley team hold on to first place, winning praise from one portfolio manager for their “consistent and multifaceted research approach.” Another client lauds their “understanding of key triggers for specific stocks.” The ten-strong squad — stationed across Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea — follows some 100 stocks and plans to increase that number as the group initiates coverage on China equities, including A shares. In April 2014 the analysts turned bullish on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the sole operator of stock and futures exchanges in Hong Kong. Their shift was a reaction to the announcement of the Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect program, to begin in November of that year, which relaxed restrictions that have long constrained which shares local and foreign investors can buy on China’s major stock bourses and in Hong Kong, says Agarwal, 40. His troupe believes that the new market interconnectivity will drive revenues for HKEx.