JP Morgan Chase ranked top equity analyst covering mainland and Asia

JP Morgan Chase, the third-largest bank in the United States, topped Institutional Investor's annual rank-ings of equity analysts covering the mainland and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole in the business publisher's 14th annual poll of more than 500 institutional investor firms.

'We are fundamentals-driven and very often anti-market-consensus,' said JP Morgan's head of China research Frank Gong. 'You have to have the guts to stay with your call.'

Goldman Sachs placed second for China equity coverage, followed by Citi, which took second place for Asia equity coverage.

'China is a big focus for the firm and we continued to invest in building up the Gao Hua platform over the past 12 months,' Goldman Sachs China Research head Kelvin Koh said. 'We have more people coming on board and continue to expand stock coverage.'

Gao Hua Securities is a joint-venture brokerage Goldman controls in the mainland.

Last year, JP Morgan was in second place, Citigroup fourth and UBS first. UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, was third in this year's poll.