MOSCOW (AFP) - The market capitalization of Russian gas giant Gazprom soared over 300 billion dollars on Saturday, making it the world's third largest company following US oil company ExxonMobil and General Electric.

Shares in Gazprom continued their rise on the Moscow bourse, which was open for trading ahead of a long holiday to mark the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, gaining 4.2 percent to 350.38 rubles (12.9 dollars, 10.1 euros).

With more than 23.6 billion shares in circulation, that put Gazprom's market capitalization at 305.39 billion dollars, compared to 372.9 billion dollars for General Electric and 390.8 billion dollars for ExxonMobil.

Gazprom, which controls 60 percent of Russia's immense gas reserves, has in the last month passed in terms of market capitalization its British competitor BP, world banking number one Citigroup, and software giant Microsoft.

The Russian gas giant has made no secret of its ambitions to grow even bigger through acquisitions abroad and to control transport and distribution to final customers.