The trading update read: “Shareholders are advised that the company`s earnings and headline earnings per share for the six month period ending 31 August are expected to be lower than those for the comparative period [last year],” said the notice.

The result in some quarters bordered on hysteria. On 9 September I-Net Bridge reported, under the headline: “Datacentrix continues its plunge”, that the company`s shares had “extended their losing streak, plunging more than 12 percent on Friday in the wake of a ‘disappointing` trading statement issued on Thursday, an [unnamed] analyst said.

The same anonymous expert called the announcement “disappointing” because the company`s outlook for 2005/06 “looked quite positive”. Business Day on the same day offered a more measured approach, reporting that the share price had fallen 6,5 percent yesterday on the release of a negative trading statement.