Yasuo Nakane Deutsche Securities The buy side says: “He’s one of the hardest-­working analysts, and he has definitely helped our performance.”

Climbing the final rung to finish on top for the first time is Yasuo Nakane of Deutsche Securities. Clients praise Nakane for being “well informed about the latest developments in the LCD markets” and for his ability to speak ­Mandarin — “an asset for getting information from Taiwan and China.” He also wins kudos for downgrading Sharp Corp. from buy to hold in May, dubbing the shares overpriced at ¥1,226, then lowering it to sell three months later, at ¥937, citing overcapacity for the Tokyo-­based manufacturer’s LCD TVs and cell phones. Since then the stock price slipped to ¥885, through February, for a 5.5 percent loss that trailed the sector by 9.8 percentage points. Nakane, 43, earned a bachelor’s degree in international law from Tokyo’s Sophia University in 1991 and worked as a technology analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research before joining Deutsche in 2001.

Polling and tabulation of data as well as reporting on the sector profiles were completed before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake.