dividends

M&G Investments' top performing Global Dividend manager Stuart Rhodes has initiated a number of new holdings over the past couple of months as he seeks a new wave of income payers.

Liontrust Asset Management is to pay its first dividend since December 2009 after reporting a leap in full-year profits and a doubling of assets under management in the year to 31 March.

Nigel Bolton, head of the BlackRock European equity team, has picked his winners from among Europe's unloved sectors as equity valuations fall to '100-year lows'.

Vodafone has reported a record fall in organic service revenue in the first three months of 2013 but has hiked its full-year dividend by 7%.

Martin Gilbert, the chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, has announced he is to resign from his role as chairman of beleaguered transport business FirstGroup, on the day the group also announced it is undertaking a rights issue.

BP has reported an uptick in profits in the first quarter, although profits fell 9% compared to Q1 2012 as the group continues to sell off assets to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BNP Paribas has launched the first ever range of trackers offering access to FTSE 100 dividend futures within its range of Exchange Traded Certificates, known as EasyTrackers.

UK income investors could be in for a dividend windfall as sterling continues to slide against the dollar, analysts have suggested.

The yield of the FTSE 100 will rise from 3.07% to 3.37% this year as FTSE 100 companies increase their dividends by an average of 11%, Banc De Binary has claimed.

UK equity income funds are poised to benefit from a decline in sterling as their portfolios reap the rewards of positions in dollar-denominated dividend payers and overseas earners.