JSE lower as commodity shares plunge following Fed statement

The  Johannesburg Stock Exchange had extended its losses by midday on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve said it could raise interest rates as soon as December.
At 12pm, the all share was down 1.02% to 53,209 points while the blue-chip top 40 index had declined 0.93%.

 
Commodity and mining shares took the brunt of the sell-off. The gold index tumbled 5.1%, the platinum index fell 5.06% and the resource index lost 3.55%. The bank and financial indices were down 1.66% and 1.13%, respectively. The industrial index shed 0.56%.

The higher odds of a rate increase in December are dimming the prospect of a year-end stocks rally, said Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management president Phil Blancato.
"I really thought we were going to get a wonderful rally into the end of the year. With the Fed posturing a little bit, it’s going to give enough anxiety to keep the market in this range-bound area."
Mr Blancato said the Fed was running out of excuses to keep rates at zero.
"There’s not a lot of reason for the Fed not to raise here. Consumers are very healthy and a lot of people are back to work," he said.

In Europe, leading stock markets were lower at midday.
The London FTSE 100 was down 1%, the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.74% and the German DAX 30 fell 0.19%.
Among individual shares on the JSE, African Rainbow Mineral slipped 5.32% to R52.65 and Kumba Iron Ore tumbled 7.58% to R58.16. Assore was down 3.66% to R79.
In gold shares, Gold Fields dipped 5.11% to R37.66 and Harmony declined 5.81% to R10.22.
Sibanye Gold fell 9.22% to R22.75.
The gold miner warned of a fall in full-year earnings of more than 20% compared with last year and it lowered its annual gold output expectation by up to 6% because of continuing disruptions at its key mines.
Sibanye, which prides itself on being an industry-leading dividend payer, said it was certain its earnings and headline earnings per share for the year to end-December would be more than 20% lower than last year’s 186c and 170c, respectively.

"The dividend strategy remains the same — 25%-35% of normalised earnings. Obviously cash flows are likely to be affected, and were in the first half, which could impact on the amount of the dividend, but that will obviously be a board decision," Sibanye’s head of investor relations, James Wellsted, said.
Impala Platinum dropped 7.56% to R37.90.
Retailer Foschini was down 3.12% to R139.15. MTN Group shed 1.14% to R154.08. Illovo Sugar dipped 2.92% to R17.28. Curro Holdings fell 3.98% to R39.80.