earnings forecast downgrade

Behold,

ABN Amro have downgraded their earnings forecast for the year ended 30 Sep 2008.

It has gone from 9.5c/share 7 days ago, to under 1c/share today.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/earnings/earnings.asp?symbol=HSK.AX

Curiously, at the time of writing, HSK was still rated a strong buy despite the downgrade.

Last year's acutal earnings was around 5c/share. The forecast last year was exceeded by 83%, so this isn't the end of the world.

The annual financials should be out mid-Nov. Their Sep Qtr activity report suggested production was up, costs were down and new reserves were up. I think this year could easily be another positive surprise.

Also, ABN have downgraded their forecast for the year ended 30 Sep 2009 to just over 9c/share.

If anyone has more facts behind the story, I'd love to hear them.