Europe has eclipsed the US in stock market value for the first time since the first World War in another sign of the slipping of the global dominance of American capital markets.

Europe's 24 stock markets, including Russia and emerging Europe, saw their capitalisation rise to $15,720 billion (€11,819 billion) at the end of last week, according to Thomson Financial data.

That exceeded the $15,640 billion market value of the US.

The rise of the euro against the dollar, growth of east European markets such as Russia, and stock market out-performance spurred by improving profitability have seen Europe close a long-held gap with the US.

Ian Harnett at Absolute Strategy Research, who identified the move, said this marked a "seismic shift" in markets.

The last time Europe eclipsed the US in market capitalisation was likely to have been before the first World War, said Mike Staunton, stock market historian at London Business School.

The shift mirrors a trend in the debt world, where European activity has caught up, and in some cases overtaken the US. - (Financial Times service)