All other things being equal, high-yielders tend to beat the market. This table highlights the shares with the highest dividend yields in each index.

The main worry about high-yielding shares is that the dividends may not be maintained. For this reason, the second column is devoted to prospective dividend cover and the last two columns to net gearing and price-to-cash flow.

Fragile dividend cover is an obvious reason for worry. Other causes for concern are net gearing of over 50% or a high price-to-cash flow ratio.

The ideal combination is a high and well-covered dividend yield, a modest PER, positive (even if negligible) 5-year growth, average to better-than-average future growth, modest or nil gearing and a low PCF. With any company of interest, reference should be made to the Companies Volume to double-check all the relevant statistics.