Dividend growth setto continue

A low inflation, low interest rate environment brings the importance of income to the fore. Stocks with high yields should give investors good returns when there is an upturn in the market

One way or another the value of income and the role of dividends in the generation of investment returns are becoming central issues in the current debate about investment strategies. This is a welcome return to old habits and a useful starting point to assessing ways of profiting from today's depressed stock market. It is worth putting the debate in its historical context. Investing in equities was traditionally regarded as an exercise involving an element of risk. Hence until 1959 equities offered a higher yield than gilts, by way of compensation. From that time until the presen...