'No investment case for oil majors'
Old Mutual Global Investors income manager Stephen Message is running one of the largest overweights to financials in his sector, in the expectation UK banks are set to return cash to shareholders.
Royal Dutch Shell is planning to slash its spending by $15bn over the next three years, following a collapse in the oil price.
Dividends from UK firms last year grew at the slowest rate since 2010 as the strong pound continued to weight on payouts.
M&G has written to investors in its £9.5bn Global Dividend fund and acknowledged "there may well have been some complacency" around underperforming stocks in 2014.
Investors are continuing to fall into the 'trap' of buying companies with a high dividend yield, according to Invesco Perpetual's Mark Barnett.
UK companies are acting as a drag on an otherwise buoyant global dividend outlook, according to Hendersons' Global Dividend Index.
Dividends paid out by UK companies this year are expected to undershoot previous estimates as the impact of the strong pound hammers payouts, Capita's latest Dividend Monitor has warned.