silly.

Down nearly $4 after announcing they're going to make a record profit. Stupidity.

MBL shares ran to about $75 late last year after Sheppard came out (26/9/05) and said they expect to beat the $823M made in FY'05, "with possible upside from speciailist fund initiatives and asset realisations".

Today the tune of the announcement is that they will STILL beat the $823M, but only marginally, so i expect a FY'06 NP of about $850M.

The problem stems from overly bullish analysts - Commsec median profit forecast FY'06 from 6 brokers was 401.3EPS, or about $930M - so now people are dumping because MBL are going to miss those overly optimistic forecasts.

As a long term investment, MBL is a great company with an awesome track record. This is just another opportunity to buy for the long term. It's just another example of why investors as opposed to traders need to ignore the huge amount of BS that does the rounds on the stockmarket.