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”.
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The Bath-based business, which makes valve control equipment used in the oil, gas, power and nuclear industries, said its pipeline of new work remained large and that it was being asked to quote for an “encouraging” number of opportunities.
Smiths Group was off 4pc, Weir down 3pc and Melrose 2pc lower, with the wider FTSE350 engineering index trading down 3.3pc at lunchtime. Traders blamed the effect of Rotork’s update.
Construction group Kier, which employs 186 people across Scotland, fell 68p or 4.6 per cent to 1,408p despite analysts at Investec hailing its “encouraging” results, which showed like-for-like revenues up 14 per cent to £3.4 billion in the first half and underlying pre-tax profits up 17 per cent to £85.9 million.
The fall in demand for the dollar also saw a rise in the gold price, pushing gold miners to the top of the FTSE 100 risers’ board.
Engineering and support services company Babcock worldwide fell 2.5%.
United Kingdom shares fell on Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on concerns about the global economy, although a rise in metals miners meant Britain’s blue-chip index outperformed Europe. Exane BNP Paribas 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”. The index closed up 1.5% at 6,229.21 on Wednesday.
“Emerging markets in particular could be affected by higher interest rates in the states”.
He pointed to a divide between market pricing which suggests no more than a 30% probability of a rate hike and the independent economic forecasting community which has been split nearly 50-50.
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Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said it was because the “fog of uncertainty” still lingered over the timing of a hike with the Fed’s latest statement a “wishy-washy report” that failed to give any firm guidance.
