* Hawkish Fed hits rand
* Stocks end week lower, Tongaat dives
(Updates levels and quotes)JOHANNESBURG, Nov 9 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand weakenedon Friday in line with emerging market currencies as indicationsthe United States central bank would stay on a policy tighteningpath drained the demand for risk that followed U.S. electionresults.Stocks fell largely due to subdued risk demand globally andweak consumer demand locally.At 1512 GMT the rand had slipped 1.06 percent to14.2850 per dollar, having hit a session-low of 14.3475 asinvestors digested the Federal Reserve's Thursday statement andbought dollars cheap, booking profits from earlier in the week."The rand along with its emerging market peers struggledtoday and gave up gains for the week as momentum is favour ofthe dollar after the Fed meeting," said ETM economist HalenBothma.
"Fresh tail wind supported the dollar after the hawkish Fedaffirmed that it would be continuing with policy stabilisation."The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady but struck anexpectedly hawkish tone that fed into some dollar gains and putemerging market currencies under pressure. The rand had rallied to 13.8700 on Wednesday following theU.S. midterm elections, breaking through the 14.00 long termresistance level for the first time in two months, lifted by areturn of global risk appetite.Bonds were also weaker with the yield on the benchmark paperdue in 2026 adding 7.5 basis points to 9.22 percent ahead of anauction where Treasury will place 10.655 billion rand inshort-term bills.
On the bourse the Top-40 index fell 1.56 percent to46,897 points, while the broader the All-share index slipped 1.42 percent to 53,295 points.
"(It's) a global selloff today and no one seems to have beenexempt but we have come off earlier lows," said Ryan Woods,trader at Independent Securities.
Bourse heavyweight Napsers fell 1.83 percent to2,745 rand. Shares in Technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd , in which Naspers has a 31 percent stake, also fell.Tencent is reportedly cutting the marketing budget for its keygaming division. Shares in sugar producer Tongaat dove as much as 12percent and closed 6 percent weaker at 61.30 rand afterreporting that it had swung into a half-year loss and citedunfavourable market conditions in its South African andMozambique sugar operations. Gold Fields shares were 2.56 percent lower afterthe company reported a 3 percent drop in third-quarterproduction, dragged down by a decline in output from its lastSouth African asset, South Deep. (Reporting by Nomvelo Chalumbira and Patricia Aruo
Editing by James Macharia)