Thursday 1 September 2011

Understanding the investment in infrastructure bonds

Bonds are actually a type of investment products which comes with a fixed rate of interest to be paid to the investors. These are in the nature of debt instruments which have a specific period of maturity. By being a debt in nature, the person or organisation issuing these has to place a primary charge on its revenues for these instruments. These are also different from the equities wherein the investors hold a stake in the ownership of the firm or organisation. The purpose for which these instruments are going to be used, the maturity time period and the interest rate might, at times, be reflected in the names of these instruments. For example, one might say that these are 90 days, 10% infrastructure bonds.

In any interest bearing instrument, the rates of interest are either calculated from the data or are pegged to certain already existing benchmark rates. Any changes in the underlying interest rates or the data components have a similar effect on the interest rates of the instruments. Therefore, while calculating the bond yields and rates, the likely changes are duly considered and accordingly, the interest rates are fixed or pegged. This is relatively easier to do in case where these is a floating interest rate since the name itself implies that the rates will change once the rates of the underlying assets are changed. However, when it comes to the calculation of the fixed interest rates, the calculations also take into account the most likely changes in the parameters used to calculate the rates during the maturity period of the instruments. For this reason, the customers, whenever they opt for the fixed rate infrastructure bonds or other instruments, are required to pay more interest than on the floating rate bearing instruments. An example can be taken of the bank bill swap rate (BBSW, in short). This is the rate, as the name suggests, the rate at which the banks swap bills with each other. Since this swapping takes place on daily basis, the interest rates are calculated and communicated across the banks on daily basis. Another reason for the daily calculation is that these are pegged to those rates or instruments which are likely to change on daily basis. Therefore, the current bank bill swap rate is to be calculated on daily basis. In Australia, this rate is used for the pricing and revaluation of derivatives and securities.

It shall however be noted that the interest rate is different from the yield on maturity for the instruments. For knowing what rate or return you will get in real, the yield rate is the one which is used. For making the work of the investors easier, there are many online websites or blogs which provide the investment bond calculator. The current yield curve of the instrument is also not the exclusive preserve of the TV channels only. The same can also be seen on the websites for making the investment decisions.

It is wrong to assume that the investment bonds are safe or immune from the different risk factors. Unless these are backed by a government guarantee, these also carry the risks. These risks are reflected in the rate of interest. More is the risk, more is the rate of interest.

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