Russ Oil-Gas

Jan. 24, 2006 Kommersant – MICEX launched Monday its first trading in stocks of Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom. The debut proved clearly successful with the trading size of over 1.46 billion rubles.
MICEX started trading in Gazprom stocks first time in its history yesterday, January 23, 2006, and attained an impressive result in this undertaking. With Gazprom’s overall turnover of more than 1.46 billion rubles on the first trading day, MICEX rounded out the leading trio of St. Petersburg Stock Exchange (over 10.7 billion rubles) and RTS ($72.3 million, or over 2 billion rubles) as its rivals. Despite the third score, MICEX managed to cover 17.4 percent of the overall trading in Gazprom in Russia. This wide coverage roots in the minimal lot chosen by MICEX. Just a stock would be enough to join trading, MICEX decided in a move to attract as much individuals as possible, including those trading via Internet. “Russians and foreigners at large have received the most efficient access to stocks of one of the largest companies in the world,” said Alexey Rybnikov, CEO of MICEX Stock Exchange.