The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price is sinking on Wednesday.
In morning trade, the banking giant's shares are down almost 4% to $99.68.
Why is the CBA share price sinking?
There are a couple of reasons why the CBA share price is under pressure this morning.
The first is broad market weakness which has been driven by a very red night of trade on Wall Street, with the banking sector acting as a major drag on proceedings.
This was driven by news that Fitch has warned that it may have to downgrade the credit rating on dozens of US banks.
This has seen the rest of the big four banks fall more than 1% so far during today's session.
What else?
The main driver of the weakness in the CBA share price is actually good news for shareholders.
This morning, Australia's largest bank's shares have traded ex-dividend for its upcoming dividend payment.
When a company's shares trade ex-dividend, it means the rights to an upcoming dividend are now settled.
In light of this, anyone buying CBA shares today will not receive this dividend. Instead, the rights will stay with the seller. As a result, a share price will tend to drop in line with the value of the dividend to reflect this. After all, why would you pay for something you won't receive?
CBA dividend
If you're an eligible CBA shareholder, you can now look forward to receiving the bank's final dividend for FY 2023 on 28 September.
Heading your way is a fully franked $2.40 per share dividend, which equates to a 2.3% yield based on yesterday's CBA share price.
The bank's shares are now down almost 2% over the last 12 months.
