Overview of what is a bond and why they are seen
A bond is a long term debt security. It represents debt because the investors ac-tually lend the face amount to the bond is-suer. However， unlike loans， bonds can be traded in the open market， ie. the investor need not hold it to maturity or suffer a pe-nalty should he choose to sell the bond. A typical bond (plain vanilla) specifies:
-the amount of the loan. The face a-mount or par value is the amount that the bond issuer has agreed to repay. A typical face amount is S$1，000 for bonds issued by the Singapore government; -a fixed date when the principal is due. The date on which the principal is required to be repaid is called the maturity date; -if the bond is secured by a collateral. Investors of the Orchard 300 bond issued by Hallgaden Investment Pte Ltd ( a joint venture between Singapore Press Holdings and Lum Chang) have the first legal mort-gage rights to The Promenade， a commer-cial property at the heart of Orchard Road. -The contractual amount of interest which is paid out either every six months or annually. The coupon rate is deter-mined largely by market conditions at the time of the bond's sale. Once determined， it is set contractually for the life of the bonds. However， some bonds have interest rates that fluctuate during the life of the bond， usually at a spread over a reference rate. These are called variable rate bonds or floating rate notes (FRN). One example of a fixed rate bond is the Singapore Government Bond 4.5% 03/00， the issuer is the Government ofSingapore， the interest payable is 4.5%. The SGB's coupon is payable on a semi-annual basis， i.e. the Singapore Government will pay the investor 2.25% of S$1，000 or $22.40 every six months. The government promises to repay the principal in March 2000 to the investor. On the other hand， the DBS Land 4/00 FRN pays a coupon of 35 basis points over the 6 months Singapore dollar swap rate， where the reference rate is fixed every six months and the principal is due on April 2000. Prior to the early 1980s， the bond market was comprised mainly of 'plain vanilla' bonds with simple cashflow structures， where coupon payments and maturity were fixed at the outset. But since then， the market has progressed， and many securities in the bond market have options embedded in them. Examples include securities such as "callable bonds" and "puttable bonds". The former offers the issuer the option to redeem the bonds at an earlier date， and in this case， the investor is usually paid a pre-mium over the par value to compensate for the inconvenience. Suppose interest rates have fallen substantially since the used elsewhere. Convertible bonds gives investors the option to convert their corporate bonds into company stocks instead of getting a cash repayment. The terms are set at issue， they include the date the conversion can be made and how much stock each bond can be exchanged for. The conversion option usually lets the issuer offer a lower initial interest rate and makes the bond price less sensitive than conventional bonds to changes in the interest rate. Exchangeable bonds are the same except that the option is to convert to another entity's stocks. For example， Fullerton Global's 2003 zero coupon bond is exchangeable into Singa-pore Telecom shares. Other variations of the plain vanilla bonds include zero cou-pon bonds which does not pay out interest but interest accrues and is paid in a lump sum at maturity. A major appeal of investing in bonds is that they provide investors with a steady stream of income and barring defaults， guarantees the repayment of the loan in full at maturity. For the conservative investors， bonds also provide greater protection. E-quity investors are the last in line of all those who have a claim on the assets and income of the corporation. In a liquidation of the firm's assets， bondholders and other creditors will have to be pai first. For a firm not in liquidation， shareholders have claim to part of the operating income left over after taxes and interest to bond hold-ers have been paid. For secured bonds， in-vestors have the legal right to the asset that has backed the bonds. Some bond cove-nants provide further protection to the in-vestors by stipulating that the bonds can be put back to the issuerin the event the ma-jority shareholder sells down his stake or when certain financial ratios， eg. debt to e-quity ratio， breach a set level. Bonds can also be exciting with scope for capital appreciation. Take for instance a fall in interest rates， in this case bonds which were issued when interest rates were high will become increasingly valuable and as the bond price rises， this provides profit for bond sellers. Investors can also ''stock pick'' as they do in the equity market. Bonds do get mis-priced and investors who can pick this up can gain substantially. When sentiment towards Asia was at its low last year， the Petronas 2006 US$ bond was trading at a huge spread of 1，200 basis points over the equivalent U.S. treasury， and since then the spread has narrowed as fears over a possi-bility that the Malaysian governmen
t would default on its external liabilities subsided. For the investors who had bought the bond， the capital gain would have been quite significant.
對債券的基本認識
投資者把錢借給發行債券的機構，因此債券也可說是種長期債務 憑證。但它和普通債務不同，因債券可在公開市場買賣，換句話說， 投資者不需要長期持有至到期日，也不會因提早賣出而繳付違約金。
一般債券會注明： —貸款額。債券的面值是發行債券的機構承諾償還的金額。新加 坡政府債券的面值通常是1000元。
—到期日。債券發出機構將在這一天付還面值的金額。
—債券是否有擔保。由Hallgaden投資私人有限公司(報業控股 與林增的聯營公司)發行的烏節300債券便擁有寶龍坊的第一法律抵 押權。
—債券每六個月或每年將付的利息。票面利率通常是在發售債券 時根據市場狀況定下的，而且在債券有效期間是固定的。舉例說，新 加坡政府的4.5%03/00債券，發行機構是新加坡政府，年利率是4.5% ，持有人每半年所擁有的1000元債券將獲得22.40元的利息，發行機 構承諾在2000年3月償還本金。
不過，也有一些債券的利率在有效期間是浮動的，一般上它們會 根據一個參考利率制定，這類債券稱為“浮動利率債券”。以發展置 地4/00浮動利率債券為例，它的票面利率定在比新元6個月期掉期率 高35個基點，每六個月將重新計算，本金退還日是2000年4月。
在80年代以前，債券一般上都相當簡單，即包括不太復雜的現金 流動結構，票面利率和到期日在發行時已定下。但這些年來，市場發 展了許多，許多債券還包括了一些選擇。
“買回債券”和“賣回債券”便是例子。前者讓發行機構有權在 到期日前贖回債券，在這種情形下，為了補償持有人的不便，他取回 的金額通常會高過本金的數目。發行機構通常會在利率下降的時候這 么做，然后它可再發行利率較低的債券，以省下一筆利息開支。
至于“賣回債券”則讓投資者在到期前把債券賣給發行機構。債 券持有人通常會在他們認為能從其他投資途徑獲得更高回報時這么做 。
“可轉換債券”讓投資者有權把手上的債券轉換成公司股票，而 不是領回本金。所有轉換條件在發行時已定好，包括轉換日期以及每 單位的債券可轉換為多少單位的股票。由于可以轉換成股票，這類債 券所付的利息通常較低，因此它們對利率的變動不那么敏感。
“可對換債券”與“可轉換債券”類似，唯一的不同的是轉換為 另一家公司的股票。Fullerton環球2003年到期的債券便可對換成新 電信的股票。
其他特殊種類債券還包括“無息債券”，它在有效期內不付利息 ，而是累積起來在到期時一次償還。
債券吸引人的一大特點是它讓投資者有一筆固定收入，到期時能 領回借出的金額(除非是碰上發行機構違約)。
對保守的投資者來說，它的保障也較大，因為公司清盤變賣資產 時，債券持有人和其他債權人有權先領回資金，最后才輪到股東。即 使公司沒有清盤，股東也只有在公司已付給債券持有人利息后才可領 到股息。至于有擔保債券，投資者在法律上有權取得債券的抵押資產 。一些債券還給投資者進一步的保護，例如在大股東減持股權或一些 財務比率無法達到一個水平時，債券持有人可把債券賣給發行機構。
債券也有增值的機會。例如在利率下跌時，那些在利率高時發行 的債券價格將會升高，讓持有人有機會賺取利潤。
投資者在債券市場也可以像在股市那樣挑選債券來投資。債券的 價格有時可能沒有反映真正的價值，選中這些債券的投資者也有賺取 利潤的機會。去年，全球對亞洲看淡時，馬來西亞國家石油公司2006 年到期的美元債券與同等的美國國庫券相差1200個基點，但隨著市場 對馬來西亞政府拖延償還外債的憂慮減低后，差距已經縮小。那些在 價低時買進的投資者，可賺了相當可觀的利潤.
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