Bank analysts and equity investors give their opinions on which companies they think are the best by the individual company sectors.

Euromoney’s annual survey invites investors to rate the quality of bank research on Middle Eastern equity and debt bearing in mind overall performance and accuracy.

More issuance likely from PDVSA; Currency appreciation might force devaluation

Air Liquide attracts new investors; More deals to follow

Banks profit on originate and hold; Expectations ‘ahead of themselves’

"It’s a minor irritation. We’ve always thought Moody’s was shit, but S&P has now proved it’s just as shit too"

"Deals are being oversubscribed by anything ranging from three to four times up to 15 times – and these are for small $100 million deals up to multibillion dollar deals"

M&A activity drops after introduction; Cade’s response faster than predicted

Fine wine shows an attractive Sharpe ratio; Investors must be wary on valuations

Signs of life driven by blocks; Rise in bookrunners ‘frustrating’

First international sovereign issue for 90 years; Aftermarket performance disappoints

Priced to support post-deal performance; Mexican equity story outshines Brazil’s

Bonds rise on announcement; Recovery-note holdouts threaten resolution

QE distorts currency trading; Returns exist, but in limited pairs

Depository law proves final hurdle; OFZ spreads tighten on foreign buying

NBAD announces six-month waiver; Rules could promote federal borrowing

Nine-year tenure ends; Maliki seen to be consolidating power

Veteran lured away from Deutsche; Signals BAML ramping up effort in Asia

$5 billion under management; Employs advisers and third-party fund manager

More issuance expected; Indonesia performance remains lacklustre

Euromoney paid a visit to the annual British Bankers’ Association conference last month in London.

An investment bank wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t advise its clients on where they could potentially make money, and earn a fee from doing so.

Falling birth rates and an ageing population should force Asia’s financial institutions to face up to the possibility of a pensions crunch.

The IMF/World Bank meetings in Tokyo produced nothing of note in terms of concerted action to counter the global financial and economic crisis.

Sometimes, I am pleased to say, I get there before others. Those who are successful normally spot signals before they become trends and navigate accordingly. I can think of many examples: Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, who realized people would pay £2.50 for a half decent cup of coffee; Steve Jobs, who saw that consumers wanted design as well as functionality; and even Barack Obama, who recognized in 2008 that the US public were desperate for change. Of course, Obama now faces a difficult re-election battle as it is not clear his tenure delivered the change that he promised.

The BBA is holding worthy-sounding debates on regaining trust. Instead they should be following an example from 16th-century Germany.

It’s never quiet in UK banking these days. In a fitting episode of handbags at dawn, Ana Botín, the chief executive of Santander UK, reneged on an agreement to buy 316 branches from RBS. The provisional sale agreement had been signed in the summer of 2010 when António Horta-Osório was running Santander UK. Santander wanted to expand its penetration of the small-business market and was prepared to pay £1.65 billion to do so.

Goldman Sachs insiders were relieved by the dearth of damning allegations in Greg Smith’s tell-all book about his time at the firm.

Tucker supports Liikanen proposal; Bank chairmen split on compensation

Pension plans are on the verge of a big move into riskier, illiquid investments to deliver promised returns; they might be better advised to curtail those promises.