I put the question as to what the share price trades ex-div back to you sirjohnnyboy, as it will be people like yourself that eventually determine the ex-div price.
There are no shortage of sellers at the moment, so your choices seem to be to firstly sell at around current levels (say 68c given where overseas marksts are at right now) and buy at the ex-div price. Or to just hold on.
My take is that the sellers ex-div will mainly be the superfunds that bought for the franking credit. They should be willing to sell for something less than 44c below their entry price to make a profit. Going off something that Mattao mentioned a whole ago, many super funds bought in at lower levels (say 65c) and therefore will be willing to dump at around the 25c mark I would say.
But the other side of the equation is who the buyers are. My view is that there are a heap of buyers who have sold out cum-div hoping to get in cheaper ex-div, plus lots of current holders like myself who will plough some of their div proceeds back into the stock if it gets too low. The big question then is how much are you willing to pay for the stock ex-div? Personally, I will be snapping up anything below the 25c level.
EXS Price at posting:
68.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held