Ghee Peh & team UBS

In second place for a second straight year is the UBS crew under Ghee Peh. “His thought process is sound, and he knows everyone but is still willing to make out-of-consensus calls,” according to one booster. Working out of offices in Hong Kong, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore, the 11-strong squad reports on 80 companies and has turned cautious on the sector. “We are going defensive, as we feel that commodity demand growth from China is slowing down,” Peh says. “We believe that commodities prices — coal plus base metal and steel prices — will be trading in a tight range for the rest of this year.” Even so, the analysts are urging clients to buy China Shenhua Energy Co., on the belief that the Beijing-based coal-mining concern’s contract sales and power business “provide earnings stability in this down cycle,” the team leader explains. Contract prices, which are set at a 30 percent discount to spot prices, are up 3 percent year-over-year, Peh adds, and Shenhua plans to expand its power output by 20 percent in 2012. — ­Paul Sweeney