S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index

Standard & Poor's launched a new index to track Canada's most consistent dividend-raisers.

The S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index is composed of Toronto Stock Exchange listed Canadian companies that have increased dividends annually for at least seven years. The index consists of 35 stocks, with each stock weighted based on its indicated dividend yield of each component stock.

The index includes all of Canada's six big banks except CIBC, which didn't increase its dividend in 2003.

S&P stated that based on back-testing, the index has produced yields ranging from 3.1 per cent to 4.2 per cent over the past five years.