'Make or break': Handful of firms could save blue-chip index's dividend yield over 2020

Predictions amid wave of dividend cuts

UK dividend cuts in 2020 are expected to double those seen during the throes of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), amid warnings that FTSE 100 firms have been overstretching themselves through their dividend payouts "for some time".

Investors are now anticipating it will take just a handful of firms to "make or break" the blue-chip index's 2020 dividend yield amid the coronavirus pandemic, given it is so dependent on a small number of companies to maintain its current 4.4% yield. On Thursday (30 April), oil giant Shell - which had the highest anticipated 2020 yield in the FTSE 100 at 10.2% and was forecast to pay out more than £11bn in dividends to investors - announced its first dividend cut in 80 years following a freefall in the oil price as markets responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Research from AJ Bell ...