HSBC : Europe's 2020 dividends expected to fall by about 40% - Barclays

Dividend paid by companies listed on the pan-European STOXX 600 index for this year are expected to fall by about 40%, Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays told Reuters on Wednesday.

The bank's analysts wrote in a research note on Monday that they expected a 40% drop in earnings per share this year with "the economic fallout from COVID-19 (coronavirus) to be as severe as the 08-09 recession".

A flurry of European blue chips have already announced freezes or cuts in their payout policies notably in the banking sector.

Shares in UK banks fell on Wednesday as the country's top lenders cancelled dividend payments after the regulator wanted them to save their capital as buffers against the expected losses from the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

(Reporting by Julien Ponthus; editing by Thyagaraju Adinarayan)