Oil equipment and services sector hit by Technip read-across

The oil equipment and services sector was battered by read-across from a profit warning at French company Technip.A Tuesday evening update from the group fed market angst about a slowdown in capital investment by the oil majors, mentioning that operating margins in its sub-sea unit will be "exceptionally low" in the first three months of 2014.However, UBS kept its buy recommendation on Technip as the long-term picture still looked healthy. Goldman Sachs was less certain: "Management remains confident, however, in the pipeline of offshore work to be awarded, and a rebound in margins in 2015. We remain more skeptical of this given our view of slowing activity through 2014, combined with a rising supply of vessels."Wood Group was down 4.7%, Hunting 2.6% and Petrofac 1.4%.ARM and Pace Micro were two technology stocks to post strong rises on Wednesday, lifting the sector to the top of the leaderboard despite falls from several leading tech-industry players in the US, including Apple. ARM strengthened 3.6% to 1,029p amid news of strong sales of tablet computers from retailers such as Dixons and rumours of Google using ARM chips in its servers. Top performing sectors so far todayTechnology Hardware & Equipment 1,169.67 +1.69%Industrial Transportation 3,285.23 +1.56%Health Care Equipment & Services 4,740.95 +1.11%Household Goods & Home Construction 10,691.31 +1.07%Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,501.67 +0.82%Bottom performing sectors so far todayOil Equipment, Services & Distribution 20,858.16 -1.89%Food & Drug Retailers 4,270.54 -1.29%Industrial Metals & Mining 1,272.12 -0.97%Personal Goods 23,534.42 -0.86%Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 11,392.51 -0.47%