By Kit Rees and Atul Prakash
LONDON (Reuters) - Share market on Thursday gave up gains from the previous session, with engineering companies such as Smiths Group (LONDON:SMIN) and Weir Group (LONDON:WEIR) falling following concerns about peer Rotork's outlook.
Rotork (LONDON:ROR), which makes valve-automation equipment used in the oil and gas, power and nuclear industries, fell 11 percent. The company said it expected a decline in full-year revenue and operating profit after projects were deferred and cancelled and trading in August was "particularly weak".
Smiths Group, whose clients include oil majors BP (LONDON:BP) and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), fell 4.5 percent. Traders blamed the effect of Rotork's update.
"Engineers, especially those operating in the oil and gas sector, have a grim outlook given weaker oil prices. The challenging environment has been forcing oil companies to defer or cancel orders, hitting revenues of engineering firms," said Jawaid Afsar, a trader at Securequity.
Another valve and pump maker, Weir Group, fell 3.6 percent. It was also hurt by its demotion from Britain's FTSE 100 index following a quarterly reshuffle.
Engineering and support services company Babcock International fell 1.7 percent. Exane BNP Paribas (PARIS:BNPP) cut its target price for the stock to 900 pence from 1,050 pence, saying "we are becoming increasingly concerned about the earnings risk profile."
In the mid-caps, oil field service provider Hunting (LONDON:HTG) fell 7.2 percent, while engineering supply group Premier Farnell's shares touched six-year lows, down 15 percent. The company reported a drop in full-year adjusted operating profit and said it would sell its industrial product division Akron Brass.
The FTSE 100 index was down 0.3 percent at 6,212.88 points by 1132 GMT. It gained 1.5 percent in the previous session, when it set a one-week high.
Some investors avoided strong moves before the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision at the end of a two-day policy meeting late on Thursday.
A rate increase would be the first in the United States in nearly a decade. The Fed will also issue new economic projections that will provide insight into the pace of future rate hikes.
"My gut feel by the smallest margin conceivable to man is that the Fed will not put interest rates up, but will in such circumstances issue a fairly hawkish communiqué within which they will inform the markets of their intention to raise interest rates before too long," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, market analyst at Charles Stanley.
He pointed to a divide between market pricing which suggests no more than a 30 percent probability of a rate hike and the independent economic forecasting community which has been split almost 50-50.