Volume was 343.9 million shares, much of it related to dividend plays and the "triple witching hour."

If that was not the news accounting for Royal Dutch's drop, the shares may also be changing hands as part of last week's dividend play.

The shares were recommended as a dividend play at 109 p on June 5 last year.

American Electric rose 1/8, to 27 1/4, while trading a market-leading 45.7 million shares on a dividend play.

The problem is that they were hyped as growth stocks when in fact they were a dividend play.

Good old-fashioned investing continued to be virtually nonexistent, with most of the paltry trading volume coming from dividend plays and takeover situations.

Royal Dutch/Shell showed similar volume of 45 million shares in one day last month as part of a similar dividend play.

The stock, which rose 1/4, to 16 7/8, yields more than 10 percent and was included in institutional dividend plays.

But roughly 30 million of the 37 million increase in turnover was accounted for by three utilities involved in dividend plays.

The earlier transition to a REIT turned the popular growth stock into a dividend play for investors.