Hope springs for equity income

With 2010 proving a difficult year for equity income, the first quarter of 2011 has provided some hope for the sector, writes Peter Brunt, analyst at S&P Fund Services.

In the six months to the end of March 2011 there has been little change in the overall views of S&P-rated UK equity income fund managers. We have not observed any significant sea change in portfolios and any changes have been tweaks at the margin. 2010 proved yet another difficult year for equity income investors, as high-yielding stocks underperformed and the UK market’s overall pay-out fell by over 3% year on year, due largely to an absent BP distribution. The first quarter of 2011 offered some hope, however, as the market experienced the strongest quarterly dividend growth in over 12 ...