Williams de Broe, the UK broker, beat global investment banking rivals Merrill Lynch and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (SSSB) to take first place in the new pan-European league table on accuracy of analyst predictions.

AQ, the UK-based research ratings group, placed ING, Commerzbank and Morgan Stanley in fourth, fifth and sixth positions for analyst forecasts of the Eurotop 300 companies. AQ, which produces an accuracy quotient score, combined its FTSE 100 and Euro 100 rankings and added a further 100 companies to produce rankings that mirror the Eurotop 300.