Gazprom overtakes China Mobile as world No.3 stock

MOSCOW, May 8 (Reuters) - Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) shares rose more than 5 percent on Thursday making the Russian gas behemoth the world's third biggest listed company by market value, a day after its chairman, Dmitry Medvedev, became Russian president.

Gazprom's stock closed up 5.34 percent, outpacing robust gains of the broader Russian index , to value the world's biggest gas firm at about $348 billion.

The price jump pushed the state-controlled firm past the world's biggest mobile carrier, China Mobile (CHL.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which has a market capitalisation of $341 billion.

Medvedev has said Gazprom could one day become the biggest listed company with a capitalisation of more than $1 trillion as the company has enough proved reserves to supply the world for a decade and the potential to keep supplies running for a century.

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But Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs, has far to go before surpassing the world's top two firms by market value -- U.S. major oil company ExxonMobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and China's Petrochina (PTR.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Exxon's market value stands at around $476 billion, while Petrochina's market capitalisation is $447 billion. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Quentin Bryar)