A year ago, China was poised for a resurgence. It had been three years of strict Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the country was relaxing its restrictions, and the investment outlook was positive. But 2023 did not live up to expectations for investors, according to China’s top sell-side research firms.
“The past year was challenging for the China equity market,” according to Eric Lin, head of greater China research at UBS Investment Bank. “Expectations were high at the beginning of the year in anticipation of China’s reopening post-pandemic. However, the macro data and corporate earnings in the latter half of the year did not meet up with these expectations.” Issues included risks around China’s property market and local government debts, and MSCI China fell 13% in 2023 and recorded consecutive years of decline. For the buy-side, navigating this muted reopening meant relying on a trusted set of sell-side research firms. For the second year in a row, China International Capital Corp. (CICC) and UBS have both been voted No. 1 in Institutional Investor’s 14th annual All-China Research Team.
To select the members of Institutional Investor’s fourteenth annual All-China Research Team, we solicited the opinions of some 2220 investment professionals at over 470 institutions.
Participants rated their top firms in each sector and then separately rated individual analysts or economists/strategists at those firms to create two distinct rankings for each sector. A numerical score was produced by weighting each vote by the respondent’s Chinese equity assets under management and the average rating awarded. Using those scores, ranks were determined. Firms/analysts were designated runners‐up when their scores came within 35 percent of the third-place scores.
In order to portray the difference in perspective between domestic and international investors, we divided respondents according to their location to produce two additional rankings: a mainland view and an international view.
The individuals surveyed are kept confidential to ensure continuing cooperation. Voters are subject to eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count. All ballots are subject to review by our Research Operations Group.