profit down

Biggest one-day percentage fall in about 8 yrs today:

Sydney - Tuesday - Sep 30: (RWE Australian Business News) -
Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) sales from the franchised 'Harvey
Norman' stores, commercial divisions and other sales outlets in
Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia and Ireland (excluding Singapore)
totalled $991.86m for the two months ended August 31 2008.
This represented an increase of 6.9pc when compared with sales
for the period July 2007 to August 2007.
Like-for-like sales for the two months ended August 31 2008
increased 5.0pc against the same period last year.
Unaudited preliminary accounts for the period from July 1 to
August 31 indicate profit before tax and minority interests for the
consolidated entity of $47.7m was down 18.3pc from $58.3m.
That reduction includes a loss from the Irish operations of
$5.6m. The company says it has no reason to believe that trading
conditions in Ireland will improve in the near future.