Mr Price’s share price rose as much as 5.3% after the clothing retailer delivered a 23.6% jump in interim diluted headline earnings per share to 434.1c.
The share price rallied 3.68% to R201.99, its first close above R200 since August 2016.
The Mr Price portfolio includes apparel, homeware and sportsware through company-owned and franchised stores, and online channels in Africa and Australia.
The group said earnings growth was driven by Mr Price apparel, Miladys and financial services unit Mr Price Money.
Total revenue rose 6.7% to R9.8bn for the 20 weeks to September. The group declared an interim dividend of 279c a share, up 22.3%.
CEO Stuart Bird said the group was pleased with the resilience of the Mr Price business model and the dedication of associates.
"They produced really solid results in extremely challenging trading conditions and I am proud of the way they have responded," Bird said.
Associate portfolio manager at Kagiso Asset Management Simon Anderssen said Mr Price delivered a much stronger performance compared with its relatively weak interims in 2016.
He attributed the growth in earnings for the 20 weeks to September to a strong performance by the apparel operations combined with a stronger rand.
Group operating profit rose 22% to R1.5bn. Cash generated from operations rose 15.9% to R1.3bn, while cash resources of R1.6bn were up from R1.1bn a year ago.
Bird said sales growth was generally better in areas where Mr Price competed with international retailers.
But earnings from the Mr Price Home and Mr Price Sport chains declined due to weak consumer confidence and a low-growth economy.
Anderssen said while comparable store sales at the group’s more discretionary divisions, Home and Sport, declined compared with the same period in 2016, the result was not a clear signal of a consumer recovery but a better performance from the apparel business.
However, Mr Price said positive early signs of summer trading were encouraging, with October sales increasing 8.3% and further momentum being gained going into November.
Statistics SA data released last week showed that the retail sector performed better than expected in September.
Retail trade sales increased 5.4% in September from a year earlier, to R74.12bn.
The biggest contributions came from the "other" retailers category (niche retailers), which contributed 2.1 percentage points to retail growth; general dealers, at 1.5 percentage points; and retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods, which contributed 1.3 percentage points.
Mr Price said it was very concerned about the potential effect of sovereign ratings reviews and political outcomes.
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