Adrian Mowat & team J.P. Morgan
After spending a year in the runner-up spot, the Morgan Stanley team under Adrian Mowat climbs back to third place, thanks in part to the squad’s ability “to select macro themes and apply them consistently across markets,” according to one investor. Mowat, who works out of Hong Kong, oversees a seven-member Asian and emerging-markets crew with strategists in Mumbai and New York. The analysts are overweight South Korea — not because of the domestic economy but because they continue to like the industrials, consumer discretionary and technology sectors in that country. The group recently upgraded Indonesia to overweight as well, with a preference for its banks sector. “The negatives of fuel-price adjustment and weaker Chinese growth on commodities exports are partially discounted in our view,” Mowat explains. Countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “remain the best structural growth story in the region.” — Carolyn Koo