In another year of increased volatility and geopolitical tensions, investors in Asia were looking to the sell-side for deeper insights and answers—and quickly.

“The volatile and geopolitically complex environment increased demands for faster, higher conviction sell side research,” according to Magdalena Stoklosa, director of Asia Research at Morgan Stanley.

Stoklosa reported that Morgan Stanley helped its clients navigate this heightened environment by anchoring insights around its key themes, delivering timely alpha signals, and translating macro uncertainty into clear, stock level implications. “We focused on helping clients generate Alpha via stock selection through our regional, thematic and country specific focus lists, where our strategists work with our industry analysts to best express high conviction ideas,” she said.

At UBS Global Research, Head of APAC Research Eric Lin reported this year’s market as even more unpredictable than a year ago, with geopolitical shocks such as the Middle East conflict driving rapid shifts across markets. The firm’s output matched the heightened demand.

“Since the start of the conflict, our team has published more than 150 pieces across the markets and sectors the investment community cares most about, reflecting how critical timeliness and relevance have become,” said Lin, who succeeded Martin Yule as Asia research head in June of 2025 after Yule’s ten-year tenure. “Our franchise is underpinned by a strong team of seasoned analysts with deep, on the ground insight who can develop clear scenarios across multiple outcomes. This is what differentiates UBS Research. At the same time, we have made innovation and investment in technology a priority to cope with the fast changing markets and evolving ways investors consume research.”

Fundamental trends, combined with bottom-up analysis, continued to provide a roadmap through the significant market volatility of the past 12 months, according to James Sullivan, co-head of global fundamental research at J.P. Morgan.

“Strategies to release latent balance sheet value drove performance in markets such as Korea, Japan, and Singapore, while industry-specific drivers, including defense, memory, humanoid robotics, and shipbuilding, see strong share price increases,” he said. “This was another year with clear opportunities for stock pickers who conducted thorough research.”

It was also another year of steep competition in the region, according to the results of Extel’s 33rd annual All-Asia Research Team survey. Based on the opinions of 3,600 portfolio managers and analysts at more than 350 institutions with major securities holdings in Asia, this year’s ranking once again resulted in a four-way tie in the commissioned-based team rankings.

BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and UBS tied for first place in the overall leaderboard results, which were weighted by respondents’ spend in the region.

Once again, each firm achieved 35 total team positions. This year Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan both earned 11 first team positions with UBS in third place with 7. Citi once again rounded out the top five and Jefferies—last year’s most improved provider—maintained sixth place.

But there was one firm that stood out when taking into account this year’s weighted leaders table, breaking the tie: Morgan Stanley was No. 1 followed by J.P. Morgan in second and UBS in third. BofA Securities and Citi took fourth and fifth respectively.

Morgan Stanley’s Stoklosa believes her firm’s edge is in its global collaboration matched with in-depth regional expertise. “We have a unique collaborative approach in which our economists and strategists will marry the insights from our global macro colleagues as well as the sector analysts within the region to bring the best of macro and micro together,” she said. “Similarly, our sector analysts frequently collaborate with their global peers to share the global read-through and they often view issues and key investment debates with a global lens.”

Stoklosa said this was illustrated recently after the recent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East where the firm was able to work with its global commodities strategists as well as the energy and utilities sector coverage teams to deliver insights to our clients. “We are intensely focused on client outcomes, delivering consistent depth and quality across the region,” she said. “We combine best-in-class fundamental research with structured data, alpha signals, and thematic insights that help clients act with conviction in fast moving markets.”

The four global themes that Morgan Stanley Research identified—AI and tech diffusion, the multipolar world, future of energy, and societal shifts—have resonated with investors, according to Stoklosa. Within Asia, investors have been more focused on the themes of AI and tech diffusion, alongside with regional opportunities offered by China’s emerging frontiers, Japan’s revitalization and a Korea renaissance driven by governance reform and capital returns.

Many of the critical themes driving performance across Asia this past year required an understanding of sector, macroeconomic, and geopolitical dynamics at a global level, combined with local knowledge and relationships, confirmed J.P. Morgan’s Sullivan. “These developments created an environment where contextual analysis was essential. Leveraging J.P. Morgan’s global scale was enabled by our collaborative approach to developing insights.”

This year that meant hosting several investor calls that attracted “exceptionally” high engagement as the firm collaborated on global memory and AI trends, with a focus on industry comparisons between the US and China, global defense industry developments, and innovative analytical approaches such as defining brand half-life duration for consumer brands in Asia, he added.

This environment placed a premium on clarity, perspective, and actionable insight, according to Paul Hitchens, head of Asia research product and head of Japan research at Jefferies. 

“Rather than simply reacting to short term market noise, clients increasingly looked to research that could frame uncertainty, challenge consensus, and connect regional developments to global portfolios,” he said. “Across the department, we focused on integrating global strategy with local market expertise.”