Chart of the week: German blue-chips dip into the kitty

Germany's blue-chips are about to start paying their annual dividends, says the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. And there's a record sum in the kitty: according to estimates from Commerzbank, some €38bn will be handed out for 2018, 3% more than in the previous year. The higher dividends are excellent news, as reinvested income is crucial to healthy long-term returns.

The chart shows the blue-chip DAX-30 index (a total-return index, so it includes reinvested income) and the Dax price index, which only reflects price movements. The cumulative impact of reinvesting dividends since the turn of the century is huge. Investors who did so would have gained around 60% by now; those who didn't are marginally in the red.

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David Rosenberg, Gluskin Sheff