Karen Li & team J.P. Morgan

Repeating at second is J.P. Morgan’s Hong Kong–based Karen Li and her team of 12, who track 67 stocks. Judged “particularly constructive on the railways,” as one investor puts it, the analysts downgraded China Railway Construction Corp. from overweight to underweight in March 2011, at HK$8.29, partly on a potential slowdown in government railway spending after a changing of the guard at China’s Ministry of Railways. In July, after shares of the Beijing-based railroad builder had dropped 22.1 percent, to HK$6.46, and trailed the sector by more than 26 percentage points, the team upgraded them to neutral, on valuation. That was too early; the stock hit bottom, at HK$3.22, in early October before rallying to HK$4.83 by the end of March. Looking ahead, the squad favors rival Beijing-based train maker CSR Corp., dubbed a top pick in late October, at HK$3.83, after Chinese authorities indicated new investments in rail. The shares steamed ahead 38.4 percent, HK$5.30, through March. — Ben Mattlin