Countries: North Andean Countries - First

Brian Chase & teamJ.P. Morgan

The buy side says: “They do good analytical work, so you really know what the companies are doing.”

Holding steady in first place for a second straight year is the J.P. Morgan team piloted by Brian Chase, who also captains the top team in Chile and the No. 2 team in Argentina. Santiago-based Chase, 33, and his associates “do a good job covering Peruvian and Colombian stocks from the bottom up, whether it’s oil, banks or retailers. They’re not just top-down strategists,” explains one buy-side enthusiast. The seven-analyst squad upgraded the American depositary receipts of BanColombia to overweight in January, at $58.58, partly on valuation and partly on the Banco de la República de Colombia’s policies to keep currency appreciation in check and combat inflation. (The central bank raised its benchmark lending rate every month from February through July.) In April, after shares of the Medellín-based financial services firm — the country’s largest commercial bank — had advanced 10.9 percent, to $64.97, and led Colombia’s broad market by 11 percentage points, the researchers downgraded the stock to neutral, on valuation. By the end of July, the share price had inched up 2 percent, to $66.30.