Europlan shares took the first place in terms of trading volume in the MICEX index

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By 16.40 GMT, the trading volume of Europlan shares amounted to just over 6 billion rubles. The amount of transactions with the most liquid Russian shares, securities of Sberbank, slightly exceeded 5 billion rubles. The total trading volume of shares included in the MICEX index amounted to 21.3 billion rubles.

"I think that transactions with Europlan shares are in no way connected with the company's business," said a trader of one of the Russian investment companies.

During one session at the beginning of the month Europlan unexpectedly rose to the second place in terms of trading volumes. Market participants assumed that such a leap could be triggered by transactions of non-state pension funds, which can only trade through a stock exchange "glass."

Europlan, a member of the Gutseriev family of Safmar, is going to buy a leasing company Baltic Leasing, 19% of which belongs to the holding company Otkrytiye, the company reported earlier this month.

The main Russian stock indexes hold today in an easy plus. The MICEX index rose by 0.45 percent to 1.946 points, the RTS index - by 0.5 percent to 1.039 points.