Shareholders' month begins

For Stock Exchange investors, April is a month of general meetings during which shareholders make the most important decisions about companies' operations during the current year, approve budgets, investment plans and the dividends they will collect from last year's profits. The main stake during these meetings is the dividends likely to be distributed by listed companies, considering that the dividend proposals of the past weeks have strongly fuelled the rise of some stock on the Stock Exchange. Overall, the 20 companies that announced they would disburse dividends are likely to transfer more than 170m euros to their shareholders' accounts. Investors are attracted by dividends as some of them can bring good returns against the price of stock on the market, in the context where not all stocks on the BSE have picked up after the steep declines registered in 2008 and early 2009. At the same time, the falling deposit interest rates are pushing investors to seek placements on the capital market that should provide them with higher returns.