South African Retail Stocks Volumes Surge on Consumer Spending

Trading volumes in South African retail stocks including Woolworths Holdings Ltd. and Truworths International Ltd. jumped following indications that consumer spending is starting to recover.

Woolworths sales gained 12 percent in the year through June, excluding the impact of Australian acquisition David Jones, the Cape Town-based company said in a statement on Thursday. That was in line with the previous year even though clothing sales were hit by unseasonably warm winter weather, Woolworths said. South African retail sales increased 4.5 percent in May from a year earlier, the strongest growth since January 2014, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said in a report on Wednesday.