James Kim & team
Nomura
Leaping from runner-up to second place is the seven-member squad at Nomura. The analysts cover 80 stocks and are stationed in Seoul under the guidance of James Kim, who works out of Hong Kong and also co-leads runner-up teams in two sectors: Technology/Hardware, with Yi-Ping (Eve) Jung, and Technology/Semiconductors, with Changwon Chung. “They find trading opportunities that others overlook,” asserts one buy-side supporter. One example: In March 2012 the crew launched coverage with a buy rating on Gamevil, a Seoul-based developer of electronic games for mobile devices, at 71,300 won, citing its growing global market penetration. In November, after the share price had more than doubled, to 142,700 won, and shot past South Korea’s broad market by a stunning 108.2 percentage points, the researchers downgraded the stock to neutral, on valuation. By late April it had tumbled 26.4 percent, to 105,000 won; during the same period the market had risen 3.1 percent.. — Ben Mattlin