Trina Chen & team
Credit Suisse
First-place appearances: 2

Total appearances: 13

Team debut: 2000

For a second consecutive year, the Credit Suisse crew helmed by Trina Chen wins third-place honors. The firm’s ten analysts cover more than 50 Asian basic materials stocks from their bases in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Manila, Mumbai and Seoul. “Trina and her team are the most plugged in and offer timely research for commodities via their independent surveys,” observes one money manager. Although the sector underperformed the region’s broad market by 8.4 percentage points in 2013, dipping 1.9 percent, the researchers “think it should be back to market weight in 2014,” says Chen, “given that the depressed valuations have already factored in low expectation going forward.” So far the group has still lagged, slipping 2.3 percent further as of late April, while the broader market moved sideways. Even so, “we think there are some improving stories emerging, not on demand but on capacity and supply,” she adds. “This is more in the context of China’s environmental focus, where selected regions such as the Hebei provinces would impose more effective measures in cutting supplies.” One name she and her colleagues expect to outperform this year is China’s Angang Steel Co., the mainland’s second-largest steelmaker. “We see 2014 earnings as an inflection point of China’s steel sector supply, and the company’s cost-cutting efforts are filtering through earnings, earlier and higher than expected,” Chen notes. Their price objective for the shares is HK$6, implying a 23.5 percent upside to their late April trading value.

See also Trina Chen's profile in the 2013 All-Asia Research Team.