Effects of final dividend announcements on share prices of companies of the FTSE/JSE Top 40 index

M.Com. (Investment Management)The study investigates the effects of final dividend announcements on the share prices of the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index for the period 2003-2012. A classical event study methodology was applied to test the data. Over the sample period the Abnormal Returns (AR), Average Abnormal Returns (AAR) and Cumulative Average Abnormal Returns (CAAR) were calculated. The final sample consisted of 13 companies that included 144 dividend announcement events. The results indicated that although dividend announcements seem to have a positive effect on share prices, the returns yielded from these effects are not significant and close to zero. Evidence relating to the dividend signalling hypothesis was also present in the South African market