London, Nov. 14: Switzerland has displaced Germany as the home of the dominating corporate force on the continent of Europe, new research by Fidelity, the investment institution, has found.

Twenty years ago, seven of the 10 largest quoted continental companies in the MSCI Europe ex-UK index were German. Today, it is the people famously characterised by Labour ministers in the 1960s as the “gnomes of Zurich”, and fellow nationals, that are on the march.

Not one of the top 10 is German, but four are Swiss.

The changing nature of this corporate hit parade says as much about industrial trends as the nationality of big companies. In 1985, the biggest companies were predominantly involved in heavy industries such as engineering and chemicals. Drug companies, together with a couple of communications concerns, now rule the roost.

In come Novartis and Roche of Switzerland as well as Sanofi-Aventis of France. Out go Daimler-Benz, Siemens, Bayer, BASF and Hoescht ? although the latter was subsumed into Sanofi-Aventis. Siemens is still the largest German company by market capitalisation, but is ranked number 11.

Nokia, the Finnish mobile handset manufacturer, features in the ninth place in the 2005 list. Telefonica, the Spanish telecoms company bidding ?17.7 billion to buy O2, the wireless phone company, is also there. If the O2 deal completes, Telefonica is likely to move up at least a couple of places from its current ranking.

Oil companies and banks have maintained a significant presence, although the names have changed.

The corporate reorganisation at Shell last year, which included the amalgamation of the Anglo-Dutch concern into a single, London-listed company, means it has fallen from the top flight of the continental league.

Were it listed in Amsterdam rather than London, however, Royal Dutch Shell would retain its number one slot in the rankings.

Two oil companies have risen in place of Royal Dutch Shell. Total, the largest quoted continental European company, has shot from 88th to first place. ENI, the Italian rival, makes it in at number ten in today’s (Monday) rankings.

The banks have changed in character too. In 1985, the sector was represented by Deutsche Bank and Schweiz Bankgesell, the one Swiss name in the list of two decades ago. Today (Monday), it is UBS that represents the Swiss banking sector.

Today's (Monday) top 10 continental European companies are worth $869 billion (?498 billion), just over 11 times as much as the aggregate value in 1985.

However, the 10 in 2005 speak for marginally less of the whole market than 20 years ago.