BSE shareholders can’t wait for news on dividend

Shares of BSE rallied 5.3 per cent to Rs 547 on Thursday on speculation the stock exchange is likely to announce a big dividend in its board meeting on February 11. The chatter in the market is that brokers, who are shareholders of the exchange, are pushing the bourse to declare dividend before the budget proposal, making dividend income taxable in the hands of the recipient, takes effect from April. Most brokers hold stocks of BSE individually and are in the upper tax bracket. They will now have to pay 43 per cent tax on dividend from April. Last year, BSE paid a total dividend of 1500 per cent.