Angelus, From the ASX website: ------------------ 'The ex...

Angelus,

From the ASX website:

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'The ex dividend date occurs two business days before the company's Record Date. To be entitled to a dividend a shareholder must have purchased the shares before the ex dividend date. If you purchase shares on or after that date, the previous owner of the shares (and not you) is entitled to the dividend.'
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Those who sold yesterday WILL get the dividend - they already own the shares and are on the register, as long as they bought by the 27th. What they sacrifice is capital gain, because they are selling at the ex-dividend price. There are various reasons why sellers might choose to take the dividend and sell the stock - most likely because they want to cash and/or they believe the stock will continue to go down after going ex-div (as it happens ORI is up today - a good performance).

Stocks often fall by more than the value of the dividend, because there may be franking credits attached to the dividend, so you get more than the 'face value' of the dividend.