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Johannesburg - South African stocks scaled a fresh record on Thursday partly lifted by strong earnings by Woolworths [JSE:WHL], which helped boost the prices of other retailers.
Woolworths said its half-year earnings jumped 29%, underpinned by sales by David Jones, an Australian retailer it acquired last year.
"Despite the rand being very weak and at its worst levels, they are still buying stocks in the retailers because of the strong trading updates from the likes of Woolworths," said Ferdi Heyneke, portfolio manager at Afrifocus Securities.
The rand currency weakened to a near 13-year low on Wednesday as long-standing economic frailties and more immediate socio-political pressures turned sentiment against the unit.
The All-share index closed Thursday's trade at a life high of 52 508 points, up 0.8%. The Top-40 added 0.9% to 46 290 points.
Other retailers such as Truworths [JSE:TRU] and Foschini [JSE:FOS] took a cue from the strong earnings by rival Woolworths and rose 7% and 6.5% respectively.
On the downside, Gold Fields [JSE:TFG] shaved off 8% to be the worst performer on the All-share index after reporting weaker fourth-quarter earnings and warning it would not complete the expansion of its only South African mine on time.
The bullion producer recorded its biggest one-day drop in about 18 months after saying a shortage of skilled labour would delay the expansion of its flagship South Deep mine.
Activity was robust with 210 million shares traded, well above last year's daily average of 183 million shares, according to preliminary bourse data.
