It is a huge day for shares going ex-dividend - the date after which investors no longer qualify for the latest dividend payment - so the fact that the FTSE 100 is trading down 35 points at around 5806 effectively means it is flat-lining.
Reuters predicted that the dividend deadline would shave 26.41 points from the blue chip index today, and it has been trading pretty well in that range all session.
Shares tend to fall when they go ex-dividend as the payout is subtracted from the share price. There are a number - such as Standard Chartered and AstraZeneca - that also have corporate news today, and the roll call of FTSE 100 stocks going "ex-divi" are:
AstraZeneca
Barclays
BT Group
GKN
GlaxoSmithKline
Pennon
Reckitt Benckiser
Reed Elsevier
Rexam
Royal Dutch Shell
SAB Miller
Standard Chartered
Unilever
BP
