Melvyn Boey & team
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which spent the past three years in the runner-up position, advances to No. 3. The squad of ten is directed by Melvyn Boey, who also helms the team that ranks first for coverage of Singapore and co-leads, with Billy Ng, the No. 1 crew in Gaming & Lodging. The Singapore-based analysts report on 20 Malaysian stocks with “an independent voice,” according to one client in Hong Kong. In September they downgraded AirAsia from buy all the way to underperform when Indonesian competitor Lion Mentari Airlines moved into the market. Shares of the Sepang, Selangor–based discount air carrier had slid 8.2 percent, from 3.19 ringgit to 2.93 ringgit, and trailed Malaysia’s broad the market by 14.9 percentage points, through April. The researchers remain bearish. — Ben Mattlin