Industries – Insurance: First

Masao MurakiDeutsche Securities

The buy side says: “He is a talented stock picker who does a good job keeping in touch.”

Back in the top spot after a year in second place is Masao Muraki, who moved to Deutsche Securities in September from Daiwa Securities Group. The 34-year-old analyst published a comprehensive report in November on the nonlife insurance subsector, arguing that stocks would fall in the short term largely as a result of deteriorating loss ratios in auto insurance underwriting. Yet he assigned a buy rating to Tokio Marine Holdings, at ¥2,318, on the belief that the Tokyo-based insurer’s high volume of overseas business would mean less exposure to domestic loss-ratio erosion. The stock had risen to ¥2,679 by the end of February, for a gain of 15.6 percent that was slightly behind the sector’s 16.2 percent advance. Muraki “knows the strengths and weaknesses of these companies in both a domestic and global context,” asserts one supporter.

Polling and tabulation of data as well as reporting on the sector profiles were completed before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake.