Dividend behaviour of public listed firm in Malaysia

The Malaysian financial market is governed and regulated by the Bursa Malaysia Berhad, an indicator of Malaysian financial market. Dividend policy in Malaysian companies is often inflexible as most of the firms are unwilling to cut or keep away from omitting dividend even when the company's earnings are falling. This research examined whether there are any correlation between earnings, firm's size and liquidity against dividend. This research used data from companies from seven different selected sectors covering over period of six years from 2007 to 2012. From the results obtained, this research confirms that profitability, sizes and liquidity are the important determinants of dividend payment in Malaysia and the influence of industry on payout decision. The companies studied appear to be reluctant to omit dividend even when they suffers loss