3 FTSE Dividends Lifted This Week

LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE  ) is recovering a bit today, up 0.84% to 6,442 points by 8:15 a.m. EDT after the banks in Cyprus finally opened again without incident. But the final cost remains to be seen, as strict currency controls are likely to be in place for quite some time, bringing to an end the island's status as an offshore-banking center, just like Iceland before it.

But none of that should affect the dividends being paid by the FTSE's biggest companies. Here are three members of the top index whose dividends were raised this week.

Kingfisher (LSE: KGF  )
Kingfisher shareholders will receive a 7% higher full-year dividend of 9.46 pence per share, despite the B&Q owner keeping the final portion of its payment static when it announced full-year results on Tuesday -- the interim payment had already been lifted by 25%. Bad weather hurt footfall at U.K. stores, and weak consumer confidence is still adversely affecting spending, leading to an overall 11.4% fall in adjusted pre-tax profit to 715 million pounds.

On the current price of 288 pence per share price, the annual dividend represents a yield of 3.3%, with current forecasts seeing that rise a little to 10.2 pence (3.6%) for the current year.

Resolution (LSE: RSL  )
With dividends in the insurance business going every which way these days, it was nice to see Resolution boost its annual payment by 6% on Tuesday to 21.14 pence per share, providing a yield of 7.8% on the previous day's closing share price of 268 pence.

Chief executive Andy Briggs told us, "The Group has made good operational and financial progress in 2012 and, importantly, sustainable free surplus has improved."

Wolseley (LSE: WOS  )
Plumbing and heating products supplier Wolseley raised its interim dividend by 10% to 22 pence per share on Tuesday, despite some of its divisions struggling and overall net debt rising to 871 million pounds from a year previously. Though like-for-like revenue was up 2.2%, pre-tax profit fell 20% to 199 million pounds, and the firm is in the process of disposing of some of its struggling businesses.

For the full year to July 2013, City analysts are currently forecasting a 17% rise in the total dividend, but that would provide a yield of only about 2.2%.

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