Chart: Currency shifts weigh on dividend growth

Leading the way, with dividend growth of 4.3 per cent was North America with Europe also producing 4.1 per cent underlying growth. The second quarter is particularly important for dividends in Europe with two thirds of the region's dividends paid in the period. Analysts at Henderson reckon that the second half of the year will be more muted still as seasonal shifts mean the slack is taken up by areas of the world, such as Emerging Markets, where dividend growth has also been elusive. This prompted Henderson to cut its forecast for dividends for the full year from $1.18bn to $1.16bn, equivalent to overall expansion of 1.4 per cent on an underlying basis.

Also listed below are the 20 biggest dividend paying companies in the world according to Henderson's research, notable for the presence of just four London-listed equities, HSBC (HSBA), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB), British American Tobacco (BAT) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The aggregate payment of these 20 companies accounts for 18 per cent of the dividends paid out by the 1,200 largest firms by market capitalisation surveyed by Henderson.