However, the trade was reversed and the unit price returned to 85c, the price at which the last trade of 100000 A-Prop units took place.

 Mike Aitken, the director of asset and fund management for Corovest, which manages A-Prop, said it was initially mystified when the linked unit skyrocketed at 9.04am yesterday.

 The previous day Corovest had said unitholders should be cautious amid recapitalisation talks, announcing also that the independent property portfolio valuations indicated the net asset value of A-Prop's property portfolio would have decreased materially this year.

 David Herr, of Java Capital, corporate advisers of A-Prop, said the trades were put through by a person who made an error on the price. "Because he (the investor) put in a price that was higher than the seller's price, it automatically matches," Herr said.

 Herr said the investor contacted the JSE Securities Exchange SA (JSE) and informed them of the error. The JSE accepted it as a bona fide error and reversed all the trades.

 Peter Redman, senior technical adviser of surveillance for the JSE, confirmed that it viewed the case as a bona fide mistake and allowed it to be corrected.