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FTSE 100 No Longer Includes PartyGaming

Leading Internet poker group PartyGaming is to lose its place in the FTSE 100 index after its shares drastically dropped in the online gaming rout first week of October.

October 10 will be the last day of PartyGaming as an FTSE 100 member . PartyGaming will be relegated to the FTSE 250 index beginning Oct. 11.

PartyGaming entered the elite list of Britain's 100 biggest companies over a year ago, as its shares benefited from the huge growth surge in the online gaming market.

However, the recent clampdown on online gambling in the United States caused the shares of PartyGaming, the biggest online poker company, to plummet together with its smaller rivals. More than GBP4 billion was lost from the stock market value of the online poker sector first week of October, with Partygaming accounting for half of the loss.

More trouble brewed for the industry as in the morning of Oct. 9, World Gaming stopped trading in its shares.

According to directors, they were following legal advice by requesting the share suspension "due to a fundamental uncertainty over its ability to continue trading".

Joining PartyGaming in leaving the FTSE 100 will be the retail to financial information group GUS.