How PSX dividends work: face value, ex-date, T+1
Why a 725% dividend is Rs 72.50 a share, how book closure and the ex-date decide who gets paid under T+1 settlement, and cash vs bonus vs right issues.
A PSX dividend is announced as a percentage of face value, not of the share price. Face value is Rs 10 for most listed companies, so Pakistan Oilfields’ announced 725% final dividend is Rs 72.50 per share, not 725% of the Rs 730 the stock trades at. To receive it you must own the shares before the ex-date, which under PSX’s T+1 settlement is the last trading day before book closure begins. Miss that by one session and the buyer of your shares collects instead. Everything else about dividends (yield, tax, bonus shares, right issues) follows from those two conventions.
The percent-of-face-value convention
Pakistani companies inherited the convention from the days when most shares had a Rs 10 face value and the dividend was easiest to express as a percentage of that. Some companies have Rs 5 or Rs 1 face values, and a few preference shares are announced in rupees directly, so always check the face value in the notice. Here is how the convention plays out in announcements on Equivest’s corporate-actions calendar as of 6 Sep 2026:
| Symbol | Announcement | Cash per share (Rs 10 face) | Last price | Ex-date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| POL | 725% (F) | Rs 72.50 | 730.21 | 12 Oct 2026 |
| INDU | 470% (F) | Rs 47.00 | 1,898.91 | 21 Sep 2026 |
| COLG | 350% (F) | Rs 35.00 | 1,194.78 | 16 Sep 2026 |
| LUCK | 250% (F) | Rs 25.00 | 433.12 | 17 Sep 2026 |
| HPL | 800% (ii) | Rs 80.00 | 4,042.76 | 2 Sep 2026 |
| HALEON | 100% (i) | Rs 10.00 | 728.11 | 7 Sep 2026 |
| BOP | 16% (i) | Rs 1.60 | 34.88 | 10 Sep 2026 |
The bracketed letters are the other half of the code. (F) is a final dividend, declared with the annual results. (i), (ii) and so on are first, second and later interim dividends paid during the year. A company that pays four interims and a final has five book closures a year, and each one has its own ex-date.
The percentage tells you nothing about the return on your money. POL’s 725% works out to Rs 72.50 on a Rs 730 share, a 9.9% payment. BOP’s 16% is Rs 1.60 on a Rs 34.88 share, a 4.6% payment. Dividend yield is what a screener shows: total dividends over the trailing twelve months divided by the current price. The highest-yield stocks on PSX right now post works through what that figure hides.
Book closure, ex-date and buy-by date
When a company announces a dividend it also announces a book closure period, typically a week, during which the share register is frozen. Whoever is on the register at the start of book closure receives the dividend.
Because settlement takes one trading day (PSX moved from T+2 to T+1 in 2026), a share you buy on a given day is not in your CDC account until the next trading day. That produces three dates that investors mix up:
| Date | Meaning | LUCK example |
|---|---|---|
| Buy-by date | Last trading day you can buy and still be on the register | Wed 16 Sep 2026 |
| Ex-date | First trading day the stock trades without the dividend | Thu 17 Sep 2026 |
| Book closure start | Register freezes; entitlement fixed | Fri 18 Sep 2026 |
Buy LUCK on 16 September and settlement lands on the 17th, one day before the register freezes: you are paid. Buy on the 17th and settlement lands on the 18th, inside book closure: the seller is paid. On the ex-date the market price typically drops by roughly the dividend amount, because the cash has just been separated from the share. That drop is not a loss; it is the dividend moving from the share price into a payment queue.
A calendar caveat: PSX confirms ex-dates in its own notices, but the ex-date can be derived from the book-closure start and the exchange holiday calendar. Equivest’s calendar marks each ex-date as derived or confirmed so you know which one you are looking at.
What gets deducted before the cash arrives
Two deductions sit between the gross dividend and your bank account.
Withholding tax. The company withholds income tax on dividends under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. For years the rate has been 15% for taxpayers on the Active Taxpayer List and double that for non-filers, with lower rates for some categories such as certain power producers. Check the FBR’s current withholding rate card rather than assuming; rates change with each Finance Act. Appearing on the ATL is the single biggest lever a retail investor has over dividend income.
Zakat. Under the Zakat and Ushr Ordinance 1980, companies deduct zakat at 2.5% of the paid-up (face) value of the shares from the dividend, unless you filed a CZ-50 exemption declaration. On 1,000 POL shares that is Rs 250, deducted from a Rs 72,500 gross payment. This deduction is genuine zakat and counts toward your obligation, but it is a small fraction of what is due on the market value of the holding; zakat on shares in Pakistan walks through the arithmetic.
The Companies Act 2017 requires cash dividends to be paid electronically to the bank account on your CDC record, within a short statutory window (fifteen working days) of the entitlement date. If your IBAN is missing or wrong, the dividend sits unclaimed with the company’s share registrar until you fix it.
Cash, bonus and right: three different things
A cash dividend changes your cash and nothing else. Your share count and average cost are untouched.
A bonus issue hands you extra shares at no cost, in a ratio expressed as a percentage: a 50% bonus means one new share for every two held. Your share count rises, your total cost stays the same, so your average cost per share falls. Jubilee Life’s August 2026 announcement, coded “30%(i) (D) - 50% (B)” on the PSX notice, is a Rs 3 interim cash dividend plus a one-for-two bonus in the same book closure. Bonus shares are not tax-free: a withholding tax on bonus issues was reintroduced in 2023, collected by holding back part of the entitlement unless you pay the tax in cash.
A right issue is an offer to buy new shares, usually below market, in proportion to your holding. A 25% right at Rs 80 on a 1,000-share position lets you subscribe to 250 new shares for Rs 20,000. If you do not want them, the rights themselves trade on PSX for a short window as a separate instrument (symbol plus an R suffix) and you can sell them. Doing nothing means they lapse. Your average cost after subscribing blends the old and new prices.
Only the cash dividend is measured in percent of face value in the way most people expect. Bonus and right percentages describe share ratios, not rupees.
Reading a dividend notice from start to finish
Take POL’s notice as of 6 Sep 2026: “725%(F) (D)”, book closure 13 to 19 October, ex-date 12 October, buy-by 9 October. Decode: final cash dividend, Rs 72.50 per share on Rs 10 face, paid to holders on the register on 13 October; last purchase date 9 October; from 12 October the shares trade without it; after withholding at 15% and a Rs 0.25 per share zakat deduction, a filer with 100 shares receives roughly Rs 6,137 (7,250 less 1,087.50 tax less 25 zakat).
That arithmetic is the whole skill. Do it once per announcement and PSX dividend notices stop being cryptic.
How Equivest helps
The dividend calendar lists every announced payout with its buy-by date, ex-date and book-closure window, and converts the face-value percentage into rupees per share automatically. Filter to the symbols you hold and it shows the cash you are due, or the extra shares from a bonus, before the register closes. On the portfolio tracker, an upcoming ex-date on a holding shows as a banner on that position, so the “is it too late to buy?” question is answered on the same screen.
This is education, not investment advice.