Valve systems maker Rotork warns of lower first-half results

(Adds analyst comments, details, background, share move)

April 24 (Reuters) - Valve-control systems maker Rotork Plc (LSE: ROR.L - news) said it expected its first-half results to be lower than a year earlier as oil and gas explorers slashed their investments.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Rotork, which was also hurt by uncertainty arising from political tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, fell as much as 4.3 percent in thin trade on Friday and were among the top losers on the FTSE-250 Midcap Index.

The company, which makes valve-automation equipment used in the oil and gas, power and nuclear industries, said its full-year margins would be slightly lower than a year earlier.

Rotork maintained its full-year outlook but cautioned that trading in the short-term would remain challenging as the timing of orders was difficult to forecast.

The quarter indicates that Rotork could be feeling the impact of the oil and gas slump sooner than the market had anticipated, Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) analysts wrote in a note.

Order intake in the fluid systems unit, which has the highest exposure to the oil and gas industry among the company's units, fell 29.9 percent in the first quarter. The unit makes fluid power actuators and control systems.

Rotork's overall order intake fell 7.3 percent.

UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX - news) analysts cut their full-year forecast for earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) to 154 million pounds, below an average forecast of 156 million pounds by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The brokerage cut its target price to 2,660 pence from 2,730 pence.

Rotork shares were down 3 percent at 2,357 pence at 0732 GMT.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Anupama Dwivedi)