Russian Government To Lift Limits For Foreigners To Buy Gazprom Shares

Russian parliament said that it is ready to provide a clear timeframe to remove limits on foreign ownership of shares of natural gas monopoly Gazprom.

The State Duma will consider the reform law in its first reading on Nov. 23 after years of delays, senior lawmaker Valery Yazev said.

Once the limits on foreign ownership are removed, Gazprom will become the biggest emerging market stock, greatly rising in the Morgan Stanley Capital International global emerging markets index.
That in turn would lead to a doubling of Russia?s weighting in the emerging markets investment universe and making Gazprom stock a must for investors managing $3 trillion in assets whose performance is measured against the MSCI benchmark.

?It is all finally happening,? said Eric Kraus, chief strategist at Sovlink Securities, quoted by the agency. ?President Vladimir Putin has given his blessing to this idea and made it clear he wants it done.?