| SPAR has benefitted from consumers shopping closer to home, popping into their neighbourhood convenience store rather than travelling to larger supermarkets. The only trouble is, they weren't allowed to buy any cigarettes or alcohol once they got there, curtailing local sales. The group still did pretty well for the first 11-months of its financial year, with its Swiss and Irish operations showing strong growth, helped by the weaker rand. While a number of companies have been cushioned by the rand's weakness this year, others have been harmed. Investec, which reports in sterling, says it was negatively affected by the rand's 22% depreciation against the pound over the six months to end-September. Aluminium products manufacturer Hulamin says the rapid weakening of the rand and the dollar aluminium price over the same period resulted in excess hedging instruments impacting its first-half profit. In The Covid Currency Survival Guide for Corporates, Chris Paizis, head of Corporate FX and International Banking at Absa, says while every corporate should have a clear and specific hedging policy, there might be the temptation to over-hedge at times like these. Also today, Telkom says its mobile business has continued to grow as a result of more people working and studying at home, and RMB Holdings expects tough times to continue for the property sector. Finally, in The Week Ahead, Chris Gilmour lists Attacq, Fairvest, MC Mining and Remgro among the companies to watch out for as they report this week. I hope you have a good week. Stephen Gunnion Managing Editor, InceConnect
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