Truworths said that for the first 26 weeks of the 2013 financial year, group retail sales increased 14.8% to R5.5bn, while comparable store retail sales grew 9.8%.
The Foschini Group said group sales for the nine months to 29 December increased 11.4% with same store sales growth of 5.6%.
Shares in Truworths rallied 2.34% on Friday to close at R102.85 while The Foschini Group gained 1.94% to close at R122.33.
Independent Securities CEO Simon Fillmore said the timing of the updates had been "more fortuitous for these two groups" than for others because the market had already seen updates from other major retailers which had given a sense that trading was not as strong as expected.
The Foschini Group's share price had therefore started discounting over the past few days and was now "reasonably attractively priced at the moment", Fillmore said.
While The Foschini Group's update was "a little bit light", unlike the decent Truworths update, the market was not surprised, given the other retailers' updates.
Truworths said it expected that both basic earnings and headline earnings per share for the 26 weeks (from July 2 until December 30) would be between 16% and 20% higher than the same period in the previous year.
Trading space increased 8.1% relative to the prior corresponding period, and product inflation averaged 3%, Truworths said.
At the end of the period, the group's gross trade receivables had increased 15.8% to R4.5bn relative to the prior period-end.
In line with Mr Price's update on Thursday, Truworths said the credit environment had become more challenging "with consumer delinquency levels increasing nationally", as expected by management. Mr Price attributed a relatively disappointing sales growth to the planned curtailment of credit sales growth, due to the "downside risks currently associated with unsecured credit".
The Foschini Group said Christmas trading was "mixed" across merchandise categories, with group sales growth for last month of 10.5% and same-store growth of 4.7%.
Most merchandise categories performed "satisfactorily" over the Christmas period, the group said.
However, the Foschini Group's sales after Christmas (30 December to 17 January) "have been strong across all merchandise categories" with group sales increasing by 19.8% and same-store growth of 12.9%.
Fillmore said The Foschini Group had shown a strong start to the year and was now more fairly priced than many of the other retailers after shedding almost 20% of its share price this year. He said a slowdown in credit extension may have had an effect on retailers' updates, although this was "healthier for the business because it certainly can become an Achilles heel for businesses - so they might be taking short-term pain to make sure the debtors book remains sound".
Source: Business Day
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