Stocks ended Thursday on a fresh record high for the second time this week, buoyed by miners and resources on sustained strength in metal prices, upbeat quarterly earnings and a weaker rand, traders said.

The JSE's broader all share index ended 0.81 percent higher at 32 153.480. Resources added 2.09 percent, the gold mining index gained by the same margin and the platinum mining index was up 2.03 percent.

Banks were down 0.06 percent, financials inched up 0.18 percent but industrials lost 0.76 percent.

The rand was bid at 7.56 to the dollar from 7.51 when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $882.75 a troy ounce from $868.10 at the JSE's last close.

"AngloGold Ashanti results earlier this week have sort of set a bullish tone for mining stocks. Gold Fields didn't disappoint and today the market welcomed Harmony earnings," said Lavan Gopaul, a trader at Cortex Securities.

He added that sustained strength in metal prices and the weaker rand added to the upbeat sentiment.

On the resource index, BHP Billiton set a new intraday record of 294.50 rand, but pulled back slightly to close up 2.62 percent at 293.50 rand.

Anglo American was up 4.51 rand at 512.51 rand.

Sasol advanced 3.70 rand to 481 rand on the back of rising oil prices.

Among gold counters, AngloGold Ashanti was up 1.34 percent at 295 rand, Gold Fields added 2.52 percent at 104.67 rand and Harmony rallied 3.49 percent to 92 rand.

Harmony earlier reported a March quarter net profit of R345-million versus the December quarter's net profit of R46-million.

Headline earnings per share of 42 cents reflected the about-turn after the company reported a 43 cents headline loss per share for the December quarter.

The company's gold production was 16.6 percent lower at 332 662oz after operations were impacted by South African power shortages.

Among platinum counters, Angloplat was flat at 1265 rand and Impala collected 148 cents to 331.48 rand. Lonmin advanced 6.46 percent to 505.99 rand.

Lonmin earlier reported that strong metals prices helped it boost its first half profits by 68 percent.

The company reported net profit before special items of US$207-million for the six months to end March compared with $123-million during the first half of 2007.

Among banks and financials, Old Mutual plc was down 11 cents to 18.63 rand.

It earlier reported net client cash inflows of £2.1-billion, which represented three percent of opening funds under management on an annualised basis, despite volatile market conditions for the three months ended March.

Funds under management were down 6.5 percent to £260.8-billion, the group said.

Life assurance sales were up two percent at £426-million.

Among banking stocks, Nedbank was down 2.28 percent to 111.40 rand and Standard Bank gave up 51 cents to 89 rand.

Elsewhere, mobile phone operator MTN Group slipped 2.22 percent to 154.50 rand, pulling back from this week's record-breaking performance after saying that it was in price-sensitive talks with India's Bharti Airtel, heightening speculation that it was a takeover target.

I-Net Bridge