"The last few days the spread has been up to 10% and the...

"The last few days the spread has been up to 10% and the dividend return is only around 2.8% in comparison."
Well yes but the idea (if it holds water) only applies to the amount the dividend impacts SP and not other factors. The current drop in SP has nothing to do with this as we haven't reached the ex-date yet.

My read of the situation is that the drop in SP is likely due to the income statement which would look very disappointing - if the market didn't read the rest of the report and/or had a superficial understanding of how the accounting works.