For the 2026 Asia Local Broker results, Extel received responses from 3,133 investment professionals at 826 institutions. To create the Local Broker results, country/region research was aggregated with country sales, corporate access, and trading & execution to create the Best Overall Local Broker results. These results use only the votes for local/regional firms. Global brokers are excluded from the Local Broker results. The individuals surveyed are kept confidential to ensure continuing cooperation. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count. A significant revision was made to the fund weighting structure this year. To better reflect fund significance in regional markets, voting firms are now weighted according to their equity assets under management in respective Asian countries.
The past year in Asia, investors were juggling a plethora of obstacles that increased market volatility—from geopolitical to uncertainty around artificial intelligence.
“We began the year navigating Trump’s tariff war, followed by growing concerns over AI overinvestment and disruption, all of which contributed to heightened market volatility,” according to James Chu, chairman of Taiwan-based KGI Investment Advisory. “That said, investors have remained firmly focused on companies within the AI infrastructure supply chain, as the global AI arms race continues to accelerate.”
As a regional broker headquartered in Taiwan, the core of the AI infrastructure supply chain, KGI has been able to leverage its strong local presence, in-depth supply chain research, and broad stock coverage, according to Chu. “This positions us to deliver more timely and comprehensive investment insights to our clients relative to global peers,” he said.
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