'Make or break': Handful of firms could save blue-chip index's dividend yield over 2020

Investors are now anticipating it will take just a handful of firms to "make or break" the blue-chip index's 2020 dividend yield amid the coronavirus pandemic, given it is so dependent on a small number of companies to maintain its current 4.4% yield. On Thursday (30 April), oil giant Shell - which had the highest anticipated 2020 yield in the FTSE 100 at 10.2% and was forecast to pay out more than £11bn in dividends to investors - announced its first dividend cut in 80 years following a freefall in the oil price as markets responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Research from AJ Bell ...