Asia's best companies 1999: Asia's new top crop

Indian companies are the stars this year, heading no less than seven sector polls: autos and auto parts (Hero Honda, Punjab Motors), engineering (Larsen and Toubro is first equal with ST Engineering of Singapore), media (Subash Chandra's Zee Telefilm replaces Newscorp), metals & mining (Hindalco), pharmaceuticals (the top four slots are occupied by Glaxo Wellcome, Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's Lab, Novartis), petrochemicals (Reliance Industries) and cellular telecoms (MTNL). Infosys ranks third this year in the technology sector and Grasim is now second in conglomerates. ICICI Bank comes in eighth in the banking poll having followed Infosys' Nasdaq flotation last March with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Newscorp's removal from the top media slot by former alliance partner Zee Telefilm coincides with Zee's acquisition in October of Star Television's stake in three joint venture broadcasting and cable businesses.

Korea has made the strongest recovery of all the Asian economies and leads in insurance (Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance), iron and steel (Pohang), textiles (Hankook Synthetic) and utilities (Korea Electric Power). Samsung Electronics was nominated top Korean company but was pipped into second place as leading Asian technology group this year by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC).

In Hong Kong it's still business as usual despite economic weakness. Hutchison Whampoa and Sun Hung Kai are again nominated top-performing conglomerate and property groups respectively. In the new retail category Giordano and Esprit take first- and second-place honours. Johnson Electric has also had a good year, managing second equal with Lerudo in the small caps poll and second equal best performing Hong Kong company overall. Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank is top Asian bank for the second consecutive year, with Singapore's DBS in second spot.