Dividend drought is getting longer, bigger for equity shareholders in India

The list of companies skipping dividends in FY19 includes some of the country's largest firms and industry leaders such Tata Motors, Avenue Supermart, Future Retail and Vodafone Idea

Dividend drought is getting longer and bigger for equity shareholders in India. 

A record 101 companies that are part of the BSE500 index have not announced equity dividend for FY19 so far, beating the previous high of 89 companies missing dividend payout in FY09 in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.

In comparison, 65 BSE500 index companies had skipped dividend payout in FY18, up from 62 companies a year ago. In all, BSE500 companies plan to pay equity dividend worth Rs 1.64 trillion for FY19, up 1.7 per cent on year-on-year basis growing at the slowest pace in the last