Gazprom shares plunged more than 6 percent on Friday on concerns about its cash-raising plans, dragging Russian shares lower overall, although traders said the downside was limited.

The benchmark RTS index closed off 2.14 percent at 337.11 on turnover of $12.2 million. The Reuters index of the MICEX exchange fell 3.09 percent to 1,277.69 on turnover of 2.9 billion rubles. The Reuters MICEX dollar denominated basket of liquid stocks on several exchanges fell 3.18 percent to 850.68.

Gazprom ended 6.37 percent lower at 22.65 rubles as investors worried about the company's idea of issuing 5 billion rubles' worth of veksels, or promissory notes, along with its planned Eurobond, traders said.

"That goes against expectations," said Igor Losavio, head of sales at Prospekt brokerage.

Gazprom issued a $500 million debut Eurobond in April and will start a U.S bond issue road show on Sept. 26. RTS benchmark the national power grid Unified Energy System closed down 4.19 percent at $0.0823.

LUKoil ended down 2.38 percent at $15.620, broadly in line with the market, with little follow-on reaction after Thursday's falls on news the company's chief financial officer had been abducted.

"Yesterday's fall was caused more by market correction and profit taking than the situation with [CFO] Sergei Kukura," said Steven Dashevsky, oil and gas analyst at Aton brokerage.

(The Moscow Times 16.ix.02)