Eoin Treacy's view The precipitous declines of the last week and counting have resulted in higher yields for just about all indices and P/E's have declined. P/Es are probably not going to remain as low as they are now because they do not take account of the earnings downgrades we anticipate at the end of Q3 and Q4. However, rising dividend yields might be a more representative figure. The sovereign debt crisis in the USA and Europe has made investors more aware of the appeal of a reliable payout. Gone are the days when dividends were considered an inefficient use of capital. Obviously sectors reliant on the domestic consumers of peripheral Europe and the USA are most at risk of dividend cuts. Those leveraged to the growth the global consumer generally have strong balance sheets and should pull through this crisis in better shape. Over the coming days I will review some of our favourite higher yielding instruments.

(Please note: All data quoted above originates in Bloomberg. We realise that some of the data displayed is inaccurate for some indices, particularly where ADRs are included. However, I have endeavoured to remove those indices which were most problematic. We continue to publish these tables because the data is generally accurate and going forward we will continue to weed-out the less reliable data sets as subscribers highlight them for us. I have also deleted the FTSE AIM Index from the list because it does not seem to have very reliable figures. The P/Es quoted by Bloomberg are exclusively based on operating earnings.)