关于利率和债券的问题,需英文解答,谢谢

1. 关于利率和债券的问题,需英文解答,谢谢

　　The inter-bank market - where banks bor-row from or lend

　　to each other- is flushed with money at the moment, due to a

　　flood of for-eign funds and the continued fall in interest

　　rates.


　　This means that banks here have more mo-ney than they need

　　and are motivated to lend out such "idle money". Hence, the

　　low housing loan rates, for example. This contrasts with the

　　situation at the height of the Asian economic crisis when

　　there was a liquidity crunch, and interbank rates, which are

　　the rates at which banks borrow from or lend to each other,

　　hit as high as 12%.


　　Also, interest rates have fallen significantly over the

　　last few months, a phenomenon that would stimulate economic

　　growth as lower borrowing costs and savings rates will

　　en-courage businesses to invest and households to consume.


　　In such a low interest-rate environment, it may still be

　　good for investors to consider in-vesting some money in

　　bonds because they will be able to achieve a higher return

　　than cash deposits.


　　For example, in Singapore, current short-term fixed

　　deposit rates are now about 1%, compared with 3% for a

　　5-year Singapore government bond and 3.6% for a 5-year HDB

　　bond.


　　In other words, relative to short-term de-posit rates, one

　　can pick up 2% more by hold-ing the bond for 5 years.


　　Interest rates aside, the retail investor should pay heed

　　to a more fundamental principle a-bout investing in bonds:

　　it does not matter whether interest rates are high or

　　low-bonds play an essential part in a person's investment

　　portfolio.


　　Investors may find this statement hard to swallow, given

　　the current stock market rally.


　　No doubt, the Singapore stockmarket has risen by about 55%

　　over the last six months and is the best performing asset

　　class now; yet, it is important to note that the stockmarket

　　had also fallen substantially by about 37% in the first 9

　　months of 1998 alone.


　　Therefore, investors should be mindful of the volatility

　　of the stockmarket.


　　Bonds, measured by the UOB Government Bond Index, are less

　　volatile although the probability of earning higher returns

　　than equities is lower.


　　Cash deposits, measured by the three-month Singapore

　　Inter-Bank Offer Rate, are the least volatile but this is

　　offset by the fact that returns are the lowest.


　　In a nutshell, an investor should consider investing in

　　bonds as an alternative asset class for the purpose of

　　diversification and in consi-deration of his overall

　　investment objectives.


　　These objectives include whether there is a greater need

　　for capital gains or regular in-come. Other considerations

　　such as liquidity needs and time horizon also determine an

　　in-vestor's appetite to assume risks and, accord-ingly, his

　　choice of asset class to invest in.


　　As a bond pays a regular coupon, or interest rate, it may

　　be suitable for investors, for exam-ple, retirees, who

　　require a regular income over a specific time horizon.


　　The higher need for certainty of income would mean a lower

　　tolerance for volatility. Although cash deposits may earn

　　interest, however, due to their shorter tenors, or

　　time-frames, an investor may face the risk of roll-ing

　　over, or reinvesting his money, at lower interest rates when

　　the deposit matures.


　　For example, in early 1998, when inter-bank rates were as

　　high as 12%, investors who locked in their funds at high

　　deposit rates of about 6% for a year would have had to roll

　　o-ver at much lower interest rates 12 months la-ter when

　　their deposits matured and rates had fallen to about 1%.


　　Secondly, if an investor has excess cash which he intends

　　to use at a later date, it may be advisable to invest his

　　excess cash in less volatile instruments to preserve his

　　savings as well as enhance his returns.


　　Therefore, bonds, like stocks or any other asset class,

　　can fulfil certain investment ob-jectives.


　　How does one invest in the bond market?


　　Currently, retail investors can buy Singapore government

　　bonds over the banking counter. The minimum investment for

　　government bonds is S$1,000 and treasury bills is S$10,0000.


　　Investors can buy and sell on a daily basis. The cost of

　　transaction is usually the differ-ence between the purchase

　　price and sale price of the bond, and may vary from bank to

　　bank.


　　They can also buy bonds as and when new issues are

　　launched. For example, HDB and JTC bonds were offered to the

　　retail market during their primary launches.


　　Alternatively, investors can consider invest-ing in fixed

　　income unit trusts. The benefits of unit trusts are that

　　investors are able to invest in smaller denominations with

　　typical invest-ments of S$1,000.


　　在外国资金流入和利率持续下跌的带动下，目前银行间彼此借贷

　　的银行同业市场资金充斥。


　　这意味着，这里的银行拥有的资金比它们所需要的多，所以乐意

　　把这些“闲钱”借出去。例如说，把房屋贷款利率调低。比起亚洲危

　　机最紧张的时期，情况刚好相反，当时的资金紧缩、银行间彼此借贷

　　的同业拆息率高达12%。


　　此外，利率在去几个月里明显下跌，这是一个可刺激经济增长的

　　征兆，因为较低的贷款成本和储蓄利率将鼓励商家投资和家庭消费。


　　在这样的低利率环境下，投资者可以考虑把一些资金投资在债券

　　，因为他将能取得比现金存款高的回报。


　　例如，在新加坡，目前的短期定期存款利率大约是1%，而5年期

　　政府债券是3%，5年期建屋发展局债券是3.6%。


　　换句话说，与短期存款利率比较，持有5年期债券可得到的回报

　　相对多了2%。


　　除了利率之外，散户投资者也应该注意投资债券的基本原则：不

　　论利率是高还是低，债券在一个人的投资组合中扮演重要的角色。


　　目前的股票市场牛劲十足，投资者可能觉得这种说法难以消化。


　　毫无疑问的，新加坡股票市场已经在过去六个月里涨了大约55%

　　，是表现最优异的资产等级；但是，值得留意的是，单单在1998年的

　　首9个月，股票市场也曾经显著下跌了大约37%。


　　因此，投资者应小心股票市场波动。


　　以大华银行政府债券指数衡量的债券，虽然赚取比股票高的回报

　　的可能性低，但是波动比较没有那么大。


　　以3个月银行同业拆息率衡量的现金存款，它的波动最低，但是

　　它的回报也是最低的。


　　总的来说，投资者应该考虑把债券投资当作另一个资产等级的选

　　择，以达到多元化投资和整体投资目的。


　　这些目的包括是否要取得资本回报或是定期的收入。其他的考虑

　　还有变现的需要，而投资期也决定投资者承担风险的胃口，因此影响

　　他选择投资的资产等级。


　　债券定期支付利息，可能比较适合那些在固定时期内需要有定期

　　收入的投资者，如退休人士。


　　越需要有稳定的收入的人，对波动的容忍能力越低。虽然现金存

　　款能带来利息，但是它的投资期限较短，投资者面对的风险是，如果

　　存款到期时的利率比较低，得把资金再作投资。


　　例如说在1998年初，当银行同业拆息率高达12%时，以大约6%的

　　存款利率把资金锁定一年，存款期于12个月后到期时，利率已经跌到

　　约1%，投资者得以显著较低的利率更新存款。


　　第二，如投资者有多余的现金并希望在日后使用，可能比较适合

　　把这些多余的现金投资在波动没有那么厉害的工具，以保住他的储蓄

　　，以及加强他的投资回报。


　　散户投资者现可通过银行柜台购买新加坡政府债券。政府债券的

　　最低投资额是1000元，而国库券的最低投资额是1万元。


　　投资者可每天买卖。交易成本通常是债券的买价和卖价之间的差

　　距，每家银行不一样。


　　他们也可以在有新债券发行时购买。例如，建屋发展局和裕廊镇

　　管理局的债券初次发行时，都在散户市场出售。


　　又或者，投资者可以考虑投资固定收入单位信托。单位信托的好

　　处是，投资者可作较小数额的投资，典型投资额是1000元。

2. 跪求！商务英语翻译

对债券的基本认识
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 of 

Singapore, 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 bond was issued, 

then it would pay the issuer to redeem the bonds early and, 

at the same time, sell a new issue with a lower coupon rate.

The end result, interest savings for the issuer. A 

puttable bond is a plain vani-lla bond with an option for 

the investors to sell or put the bond to the issuer at a 

date before maturity. Investors usually put a bond back to 

the issuer when they think that the money invested could be 

better 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 paid

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 issuer in 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 

government would default on its external liabilities 

subsided. For the investors who had bought the bond, the 

capital gain would have been quite significant.



(The writer is Investment Manager of Aberdeen Asset 

Management. This column has the support of Investment 

Management Association of Singapore and the Stock Exchange 

of Singapore. ) 

  

对债券的基本认识 



  投资者把钱借给发行债券的机构，因此债券也可说是种长期债务

凭证。但它和普通债务不同，因债券可在公开市场买卖，换句话说，

投资者不需要长期持有至到期日，也不会因提早卖出而缴付违约金。



  一般债券会注明：



  —贷款额。债券的面值是发行债券的机构承诺偿还的金额。新加

坡政府债券的面值通常是1000元。



  —到期日。债券发出机构将在这一天付还面值的金额。



  —债券是否有担保。由Hallgaden投资私人有限公司（报业控股

与林增的联营公司）发行的乌节300债券便拥有宝龙坊的第一法律抵

押权。



  —债券每六个月或每年将付的利息。票面利率通常是在发售债券

时根据市场状况定下的，而且在债券有效期间是固定的。举例说，新

加坡政府的4.5%03/00债券，发行机构是新加坡政府，年利率是4.5%

，持有人每半年所拥有的1000元债券将获得22.40元的利息，发行机

构承诺在2000年3月偿还本金。



  不过，也有一些债券的利率在有效期间是浮动的，一般上它们会

根据一个参考利率制定，这类债券称为“浮动利率债券”。以发展置

地4/00浮动利率债券为例，它的票面利率定在比新元6个月期掉期率

高35个基点，每六个月将重新计算，本金退还日是2000年4月。



  在80年代以前，债券一般上都相当简单，即包括不太复杂的现金

流动结构，票面利率和到期日在发行时已定下。但这些年来，市场发

展了许多，许多债券还包括了一些选择。



  “买回债券”和“卖回债券”便是例子。前者让发行机构有权在

到期日前赎回债券，在这种情形下，为了补偿持有人的不便，他取回

的金额通常会高过本金的数目。发行机构通常会在利率下降的时候这

么做，然后它可再发行利率较低的债券，以省下一笔利息开支。



  至于“卖回债券”则让投资者在到期前把债券卖给发行机构。债

券持有人通常会在他们认为能从其他投资途径获得更高回报时这么做

。



  “可转换债券”让投资者有权把手上的债券转换成公司股票，而

不是领回本金。所有转换条件在发行时已定好，包括转换日期以及每

单位的债券可转换为多少单位的股票。由于可以转换成股票，这类债

券所付的利息通常较低，因此它们对利率的变动不那么敏感。



  “可对换债券”与“可转换债券”类似，唯一的不同的是转换为

另一家公司的股票。Fullerton环球2003年到期的债券便可对换成新

电信的股票。



  其他特殊种类债券还包括“无息债券”，它在有效期内不付利息

，而是累积起来在到期时一次偿还。



  债券吸引人的一大特点是它让投资者有一笔固定收入，到期时能

领回借出的金额（除非是碰上发行机构违约）。



  对保守的投资者来说，它的保障也较大，因为公司清盘变卖资产

时，债券持有人和其他债权人有权先领回资金，最后才轮到股东。即

使公司没有清盘，股东也只有在公司已付给债券持有人利息后才可领

到股息。至于有担保债券，投资者在法律上有权取得债券的抵押资产

。一些债券还给投资者进一步的保护，例如在大股东减持股权或一些

财务比率无法达到一个水平时，债券持有人可把债券卖给发行机构。



  债券也有增值的机会。例如在利率下跌时，那些在利率高时发行

的债券价格将会升高，让持有人有机会赚取利润。



  投资者在债券市场也可以像在股市那样挑选债券来投资。债券的

价格有时可能没有反映真正的价值，选中这些债券的投资者也有赚取

利润的机会。去年，全球对亚洲看淡时，马来西亚国家石油公司2006

年到期的美元债券与同等的美国国库券相差1200个基点，但随着市场

对马来西亚政府拖延偿还外债的忧虑减低后，差距已经缩小。那些在

价低时买进的投资者，可赚了相当可观的利润。