The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) can't seem to decide what to do with the week's last trading day. The ASX 200 is currently down by a tentative 0.03%, but has been rather wild all day. That's perhaps no surprise, given what is happening in the world right now. But in what may be a surprise, the Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX: NCM) share price is underperforming the market so far today.
Newcrest was one of the precious few ASX 200 shares not to be heavily sold off yesterday. In fact, this gold miner finished the day up a pleasing 4.15%. During times of geopolitical turmoil, investors often flock to gold, and by extension, the companies that mine it. This is probably what we saw occurring yesterday.
But today, the Newcrest share price is going backwards, giving up much of yesterday's gains. Newcrest shares are presently trading at $24.98 each, down 2.52% so far.
Gold is money? Newcrest's latest dividend leaves the ASX
Gold prices have slipped over the past few hours, as my Fool colleague James outlined this morning. So that is probably why we are seeing weakness across most of the ASX gold sector today. But in Newcrest's case, something else is also at play.
The miner has traded ex-dividend today. Yes, from today, new shareholders will not be entitled to receive Newcrest's upcoming interim dividend payout. Thus, the value of this payment has left the Newcrest share price, as is typical when an ASX dividend share goes 'ex-div'.
It was only last week that Newcrest released its half-year earnings report to the markets. As we covered at the time, the gold miner reported an increase in its gold reserves, but a fall in revenues, profits and production. However, Newcrest did declare an interim dividend of 7.5 US cents per share, fully franked. That equates to 10.4 cents in our currency. This dividend will hit shareholders' bank accounts on 31 March.
Unfortunately for shareholders, this payment was a lot lower than either Newcrest's prior interim dividend of 19.3 cents per share, or its previous final dividend of 55.2 cents per share.
But this dividend is at least partially responsible for the falls we are seeing in Newcrest shares this Friday.
At the current Newcrest share price, this ASX 200 gold miner has a dividend yield of 2.62%.
