PARTYGAMING fell nearly 6 per cent as the spectre of a British government clampdown on online gaming encouraged profit-taking after last week’s strong fourth-quarter revenue numbers from the poker website operator.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Richard Caborn, the minister responsible for gambling, raised the possibility of international restrictions to protect internet gamblers.

Mr Caborn said that Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, would be inviting her foreign counterparts “to see whether we can look at some international regulation whereby we can look at these issues of problem gambling on the internet”. He said that his department planned to involve credit card issuers in discussions.

That prospect pulled Party Gaming 8¼p lower at 132¾p, with its mid-cap rival 888 Holdings off 11p at 209p. However, analysts pointed out that, as both companies derived a significant proportion of their business from America, where internet gambling is deemed to be illegal, the impact of any such moves would be limited.

The wider market moved lower, despite buying of the oil majors after strong quarterly numbers from ExxonMobil, which stoked demand for Shell, 42p dearer at £20.02, ahead of Thursday’s full-year figures. BP added 16½p to 682p in sympathy. The FTSE 100 spent most of the session in negative territory and closed 7.0 points lower at 5,779.8.

GUS rose 9½p to £10.35 as Numis Securities selected the Argos and Homebase owner as its retail stock of the year, with a £12.34 valuation target. Steve Davies, analyst, cited the strength of its Experian credit checking business and in particular the growth prospects for Experian Interactive. Mr Davies highlighted Experian’s exposure to high growth, high margin activities, such as online customer recruitment and fraud prevention, as well as scope for geographic expansion into emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia. Aside from the potential for upgrades to forecasts, Numis says that GUS’s shares could react favourably to greater clarity from the company this year on a timetable for separating Experian from its retail operations.

BSkyB, in which News Corporation, parent company of The Times, has a 37.6 per cent stake, shed 6½p to 478½p as Credit Suisse moved the digital satellite broadcaster from “outperform” to “neutral” ahead of tomorrow’s first-half figures.

The Swiss broker, which cut its price target from 625p to 525p, said that it still believed that there was growth in Sky’s core business, but said that its big concern remained uncertainty over the scale and direction of future investment and the use of cash.

BHP Billiton gained 8p at £10.60 as Investec Securities raised its price target to £10.75. The broker points out that followers of the miner have been focusing on record metals prices recently, but suggests that they are underestimating the long-term growth potential of its petroleum portfolio in the Gulf of Mexico and off Western Australia.

• NEW YORK: Shares finished a lacklustre session narrowly mixed as investors made few moves ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 7.30 points down at 10,899.00.

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