British blue chips’ juicy yield

A stronger pound contributed to a 1.4% year-on-year fall in UK dividends during the second quarter. Share-transfer company Computershare’s latest Dividend Monitor shows that listed UK firms paid out £35.1bn in dividends in the three months to 30 June. One-off special dividends almost halved to £2bn as mining payouts dropped “sharply”. The second half of the year won’t bring relief, with headline dividends forecast to come in at £88.3bn for the year as a whole, a 1.4% annual decline. Still, strip...