Newton's Metcalfe: Investors must focus on dividend sustainability for UK market

Paid shareholders £325m every working day last year

In September 2016, the value of dividends paid since 2000 by the UK's listed companies breached the £1trn threshold.

In the year 2000, UK plc distributed £42bn. By the end of 2016, this was expected to have reached £82.5bn, an increase of 96%. This is significantly ahead of consumer price inflation (CPI), which increased 37% over the same period.  On average, UK companies paid their shareholders £325m every working day in 2016. With investors finding it increasingly difficult to identify assets which provide them with a dependable source of income, the UK market yield of 3.6% is attractive when measured against the yield available from other sources of income.  FTSE 250 climbs 0.4% to hit record ...