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Fixed income

Lending, not owning. Which changes everything.

Explore fixed-income investment opportunities through bonds, Government Securities (G-Secs) and Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs).

Fixed income does not mean fixed value. A bond's price moves with interest rates, and a corporate borrower can fail to pay. Read the offer document before investing.

Fixed income at a glanceThe mechanics that are the same on every bond ever issued
What you are
A lenderAhead of shareholders if things go wrong, and capped if they go well.
What you get
Coupon, then principalInterest at stated intervals, and the face value at maturity.
Who the borrower is
EverythingA government, a state, or a company. The difference is the whole risk.
Price and yield
Opposite ends of one see-sawWhen one rises the other falls. Always.
How long it runs
A fixed maturityWhich is what a bond has and a debt fund does not.
Where it sits
Your own dematIn your name at the depository, like any share.
Brokerage
₹20 per executed orderOn an exchange trade. A public issue has no brokerage.

Coupon rates, yields, credit ratings, issue terms, auction calendars, minimum amounts and tax rates are set by issuers, rating agencies, the Reserve Bank, the exchanges and the government, and all of them change. This page describes how these instruments work rather than what any of them is offering today. The offer document or information memorandum, the exchange website and your contract note are the authoritative record, and nothing here recommends any bond, issuer or issue.

Three things to be clear about before lending anybody money. First, fixed income does not mean fixed value: the coupon is fixed, and the price of the bond moves every day with market interest rates, so selling before maturity can return less than you put in. Second, the promise is only as good as the borrower: a government security carries the sovereign's promise, while a corporate bond or a debenture carries a company's, and companies have failed to pay before and will again, whatever rating they held at issue. Third, a high yield is a price for something: nobody offers more than the market rate out of generosity, so when one bond pays noticeably more than another, the difference is the market's view of the risk and the question is whether you agree with it. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to invest in any bond, issuer or issue.

Start here

Four ideas that make the rest obvious

Fixed income has a reputation for being complicated. Almost all of it follows from these four, and none of them require any mathematics.

You are a lender, with a ceiling and a queue

A bond is a loan with terms written down: how much interest, how often, and when the principal comes back. However well the borrower does, you get the coupon and nothing more. If it fails, you stand ahead of the shareholders in the queue, which is worth a great deal and is not the same as being safe.

Consequence: the upside is capped by contract, so the entire skill is in not losing money.

The coupon is fixed. The price is not.

A bond paying seven rupees a year keeps paying seven rupees whatever happens to interest rates. What changes is what somebody else will pay you for that stream today. If new bonds are being issued at eight, yours is worth less than it was; if they are being issued at six, yours is worth more.

Consequence: hold to maturity and the price in between is noise. Sell before it and the price is the whole outcome.

There are two risks, and they are unrelated

Interest rate risk is that rates move and the price of your bond moves against you. Credit risk is that the borrower does not pay at all. A government security has essentially no credit risk and plenty of rate risk; a short-dated corporate bond can have the reverse. Confusing the two is the most common error in this whole subject.

Consequence: ask which of the two you are being paid for before deciding a yield is attractive.

Time is the multiplier

The longer a bond has left to run, the more its price moves for the same change in interest rates. A bond maturing next year barely flinches; one maturing in twenty years swings a great deal. That sensitivity has a name, duration, and it is the single most useful number on the page after the yield.

Consequence: match the maturity to when you need the money, and most of the rate risk disappears.

Who you can lend to

Six instruments, and the borrower is the difference

They all pay interest and return a principal. What separates them is who owes you the money, how long for, how easily you can get out, and what the tax treatment does to the yield you actually keep.

Government securities

Dated paper issued by the central government

Bonds issued by the Government of India, paying a fixed coupon at stated intervals and returning the face value at maturity. They carry essentially no credit risk in rupees, which makes them the benchmark against which every other yield in the country is measured.

  • The credit question disappears entirely. What remains is the price risk, and on a long-dated security that is considerable.
  • Maturities run from a few years to several decades, so the same issuer offers wildly different risk profiles.
  • They are the most liquid rupee bonds there are, although trading is dominated by institutions rather than individuals.
Who owes youThe central government
How long it runsA few years to several decades
How you buy itRBI retail facility, or the exchange
Interest taxed asIncome, at your slab

What to check first

  • The maturity, because it decides almost all of the price risk
  • The yield against the coupon, which tells you if it trades above or below face value
  • Whether you can genuinely hold to maturity
  • How the after-tax yield compares once your slab is applied
Where people get caught

Assuming no credit risk means no risk. A thirty-year government security can lose a great deal of value if rates rise and you have to sell. The sovereign will pay you in full on the maturity date; it makes no promises about the price in year seven.

Which instruments are available to a retail investor, in what minimum amounts and through which route, is set by the Reserve Bank, SEBI, the exchanges and the issuers, and changes over time. Tax-free bonds in particular are no longer issued and exist only in the secondary market. This section describes the character of each instrument rather than an inventory of what is on offer today, and nothing here recommends any issuer, issue or instrument.

The one idea that matters

Why a safe bond can still lose you money

Nothing about the borrower has to change for a bond's price to fall. All that has to happen is that somebody else starts issuing bonds at a better rate, and yours becomes worth less to whoever might buy it from you.

Price and yield move in opposite directions, and a longer bond moves furtherOn the left, a see-saw. Price sits on one end and yield on the other, so when the price of a bond rises its yield falls, and when the price falls the yield rises. One cannot move without the other moving the opposite way. On the right, three levers of increasing length pivot from the same point, representing bonds maturing in one year, five years and fifteen years. The same change in interest rates moves the far end of the longest lever much further than the shortest, which is why a long-dated bond's price swings far more than a short-dated one's for the same move in rates. That sensitivity is called duration.Two ends of one see-sawPRICEYIELDNeither can move without the other moving the opposite way.A longer bond has a longer leverMatures in 1 yearMatures in 5 yearsMatures in 15 yearsThe same change in rates, three very different moves. That sensitivity is duration.

What you holdWhat the market chargesDiagram is schematic and not drawn to any scale.

Coupon, current yield and yield to maturity

Three different numbers that people use interchangeably. The coupon is the fixed rupee interest on the face value. The current yield is that interest divided by the price you actually paid. The yield to maturity also accounts for the gain or loss you will make when the face value comes back, and it is the only one of the three worth comparing bonds on.

Rule of thumb: if somebody quotes a bond's return without saying which of the three they mean, ask.

Holding to maturity makes the price irrelevant

If the borrower pays, you get the coupons on schedule and the face value at the end, whatever the price did in between. That is the single most powerful feature of owning a bond directly rather than through a fund: the outcome is knowable on the day you buy, provided you can genuinely leave it alone until maturity.

Condition: it only works if you will not need the money early. Otherwise the price in between is your outcome.

Accrued interest, and why the price looks odd

Between coupon dates, interest builds up day by day and belongs to whoever held the bond for those days. A buyer therefore pays the quoted price plus the interest accrued since the last coupon. That is why the amount debited rarely matches the price on screen, and it is not a charge.

Practical effect: the clean price is quoted; the dirty price, including accrued interest, is what you pay.

Four routes in

How a retail investor actually gets hold of these

Bonds have a reputation for being institutional. That has not been true for some years, and the four routes below cover almost everything an individual would want.

Directly from the government, at auction

The Reserve Bank runs a facility through which an individual can open an account and bid in the primary auctions of government securities, state loans and treasury bills without going through an intermediary. Retail bids are non-competitive, meaning you do not name a yield: you accept the one the auction discovers.

Suits: someone buying a government security to hold to maturity, in modest amounts, with no intermediary at all.

On the exchange, like a share

Listed bonds, debentures and government securities trade in the secondary market through your ordinary trading account and settle into the same demat account. You see a price, you place an order, and brokerage and the usual statutory charges apply exactly as they would on a share.

Watch for: thin order books. Many listed bonds trade rarely, and the spread you pay can be a larger cost than the brokerage.

In a public issue, when one opens

Companies raise money from the public by issuing non-convertible debentures through an offer that stays open for a period, at a stated coupon, with an offer document setting out the terms, the rating and the risks. You apply as you would to a share issue, and allotment follows a published basis.

Read first: the rating, what the money is for, and who the issuer actually is. A high coupon is a price for something.

Through a fund, if you would rather not choose

A debt mutual fund, a bond exchange traded fund or a target maturity fund holds a portfolio of these instruments for you. You give up the certainty of a known amount on a known date, except in a target maturity scheme, and you get diversification across borrowers and somebody else doing the monitoring.

Trade-off: an expense ratio every year, in exchange for not owning any single borrower's problem.

Where the bonds actually sit

Bought on the exchange or in a public issue, they are credited to your own demat account in your name, and the depository reports them to you directly. Bought through the Reserve Bank's retail facility, they sit in a securities account there instead. Either way the holding is registered to you and is not on anybody's balance sheet but yours.

Worth doing: register a nominee on whichever account holds them, on the day you open it.

How the money comes back to you

Coupons are credited to the bank account registered against the holding on the stated dates, without you doing anything. The face value arrives on the maturity date the same way, and the holding is extinguished. Nothing needs to be redeemed, claimed or instructed.

Keep current: the bank details on the account, because that is where every payment goes.

Arithmetic, not forecasts

What a bond pays, and what a rate move does to it

Both calculators work on figures you type in from the offer document or the quote screen. Neither knows a bond, an issuer or a market rate, and neither is a projection. The second one is the more useful of the two, because it makes visible the risk that fixed income is famous for not having.

Where the numbers come from. The face value, the coupon and the maturity date are in the offer document or the instrument's own terms; the price is on the quote screen. Everything here is arithmetic on figures you supply, so it keeps working whatever the market is doing on the day you read it. It assumes annual coupons and a borrower who pays, which is the assumption the whole calculation rests on.

Why the price matters as much as the coupon. A bond bought below its face value returns more than its coupon, because the difference comes back to you at maturity. One bought above face value returns less, for the same reason in reverse. The coupon alone tells you almost nothing, which is why a quoted yield should always say whether it is the current yield or the yield to maturity.

Approximate yield to maturity8.98%A bond of ₹1,000 face value paying 8% costs you ₹960, so the current yield is 8.33%. Adding the ₹40 you gain when the face value returns in 5 years brings the yield to maturity to about 8.98%.
Coupon received each year₹80
Current yield, on the price paid8.33%
Coupons over the whole life₹400
Gain or loss at maturity+ ₹40

Run the second calculator before you decide fixed income is the safe part. A ten-year bond and a two-year bond from the same borrower carry the same credit risk and completely different price risk, and the difference only becomes visible when you put a rate move through both. If you will hold to maturity, none of it matters and the yield you locked in is the yield you get. If there is any chance you will need the money earlier, the maturity you chose is the most important decision you made.

Three ways to lend

A bond, a debt fund or a deposit

All three make you a lender. They differ in whether the amount you get back is known in advance, whether you can have it early, and who is doing the credit work.

Which of the three fits this particular money

Two questions about this pot of money, not about you in general. The matching column below is highlighted. This describes how the three work; it is not advice about any bond, scheme or bank, and it takes no account of your circumstances.

Do you need to know the exact amount you will get back?
Might you need the money before the date you had in mind?
A bond held to maturity

You need a known amount on a known date and you are confident the date will not move. That is the one thing a single bond does better than anything else: buy it at a yield you can see, hold it, and if the borrower pays you receive the coupons on schedule and the face value at the end, whatever the price did in between. Match the maturity to your date, and choose the issuer carefully, because with one bond you own one borrower's promise and nothing else.

This matches a stated requirement to the characteristics of three structures. It is not investment advice, it takes no view on any bond, issuer, scheme or bank, and it does not consider your income, tax position or other holdings. Fixed income does not mean fixed value, and a corporate borrower can fail to pay.

AttributeA bond held to maturityA debt fundA bank deposit
Comparison of a single bond held to maturity, a debt mutual fund and a bank fixed deposit across eleven attributes
What you ownA loan to one named borrowerUnits in a pool of many loansA deposit with one bank
Is the final amount knownYes, if the borrower paysNo, except in a target maturity schemeYes, at the contracted rate
When you get it backOn the maturity dateWhenever you redeemOn the maturity date, or earlier with a penalty
Taking money out earlySell on the exchange, at whatever price is thereRedeem at the day's net asset valueBreak it, usually at a reduced rate
Who does the credit workYou, with help from the ratingThe fund manager, within the mandateThe bank, and it is not your exposure
DiversificationNone, unless you buy severalBuilt in, across many borrowersNone, but see insurance below
Deposit insuranceNoneNoneUp to the limit prescribed, per bank per depositor
What moves the value meanwhileInterest rates and the issuer's standingThe same, across the whole portfolioNothing. It does not have a market price
Recurring costNone once boughtThe expense ratio, every yearNone
Interest taxed asIncome, at your slabOn redemption, under the capital gains rulesIncome, at your slab
Main riskThat one borrower fails, or you sell earlyRates, credit and the cost, across the poolRates falling before you renew
Reading the letters

What a credit rating is, and what it is not

A rating is an independent opinion on one question only: how likely is this borrower to pay what it promised, when it promised. It is genuinely useful, it is free to read, and it is not a guarantee of anything.

It answers one question

Will this borrower pay this instrument on time and in full. It says nothing about whether the price will fall if rates rise, nothing about whether the bond will be easy to sell, and nothing about whether the yield on offer is a good one. Those are three separate questions that the letters do not address at all.

Consequence: a top-rated long bond can still lose you a great deal of money if you sell it after a rate rise.

The scale is not evenly spaced

The gap in actual default experience between the highest grade and the one below it is small. The gap between investment grade and everything under it is enormous, and it widens sharply with each step down. Two notches near the top and two notches near the bottom are not comparable distances.

Consequence: a yield that looks generously higher for one notch lower is usually reflecting something real.

Ratings move, and sometimes quickly

A rating is reviewed and can be raised, lowered or put on watch at any time. A downgrade pushes the price down immediately, because every potential buyer now wants a higher yield for the same paper. Rating actions are published and are worth following for anything you hold.

Consequence: the rating at issue is not the rating you hold. Check it again occasionally.

It rates the instrument, not the company

The same company can have differently rated instruments, because some rank ahead of others if things go wrong, some are secured against assets and some are not. A rating attaches to a specific issue with specific terms, so check that the letters you are reading belong to the bond you are buying.

Consequence: secured and unsecured debentures of one issuer are genuinely different instruments.

The issuer pays for the rating

That is how the industry is structured, it is disclosed, and the agencies are regulated and their track records are published. It does not make ratings useless and it is a reason to read the rationale rather than only the letters. The rationale explains what the agency is worried about, which is the part worth having.

Consequence: read the rating rationale. It is a page long and free on the agency's website.

Government paper is the reference point

A central government security is treated as the benchmark against which everything else is priced, because the sovereign can meet its own rupee obligations. Every other yield is that benchmark plus a spread, and the spread is exactly what you are being paid for taking somebody else's credit risk instead.

Useful habit: compare a corporate yield against a government security of similar maturity. The gap is the question.

Honest failure modes

Six ways lending money goes wrong

Fixed income fails quietly rather than dramatically, which is why these are worth reading before rather than after.

Buying a long bond for short money

The single most common mistake. A fifteen-year bond bought with money needed in three years means you will be selling into whatever the market offers on that day, and a rate rise in between can cost more than several years of coupons earned. The credit was never the problem; the maturity was.

Fix: match the maturity to the date. It removes most of the risk for free.

Reading a high coupon as a good deal

Nobody pays more than the market requires. When an issue offers a yield well above what comparable paper is offering, the market is pricing something: a weaker borrower, a longer lock, a subordinated position in the queue or an instrument nobody will buy from you later. The yield is the compensation, not the bargain.

Fix: compare against a government security of the same maturity. Ask what the gap is paying you for.

Discovering there is no buyer

A great many listed bonds trade rarely or not at all. The quote you can see may be for a handful of units, and selling a meaningful holding can mean accepting a materially worse price or waiting. Liquidity is invisible while you hold and decisive the moment you want out.

Fix: assume you will hold to maturity. If you cannot make that assumption, buy something that trades.

The call option you did not notice

Many bonds let the issuer repay early on stated dates. Issuers use that right when rates have fallen, which is precisely when your bond had become valuable. You get your money back and must reinvest it at the new, lower rate. The option belongs to them and it is in the terms.

Fix: read the call and put schedule in the offer document before assuming the maturity date is the maturity date.

Everything with one borrower

A single corporate bond is a concentrated bet on one company paying. Investors comfortable with holding twenty shares will sometimes put the whole fixed income allocation into one issuer's debentures because it is described as fixed. A default there is not a fall to recover from; it is a permanent loss of principal.

Fix: spread across issuers, or use a fund for the corporate part and hold government paper directly.

Forgetting what the coupon is worth later

Two effects, both slow. Every coupon received has to be reinvested at whatever rate exists then, which may be lower than the one you locked in. And a fixed rupee amount buys less each year as prices rise, so a long bond at a modest yield can return your money faithfully and still leave you behind.

Fix: judge a long-dated yield against expected inflation, not against what deposits paid last year.

What it costs

Every line, what it is charged on, and who charges it

Rates move with circulars and with the Finance Act, so the table gives you the structure and tells you where the current figure is published. On bonds the largest cost is usually the one nobody bills you for.

Charges on buying and holding bonds, government securities and debentures, what each is calculated on, and who levies it
Line itemCalculated onLevied byWhere the current rate is published
Brokerage on an exchange tradeNothing. It is a flat amount per executed order, however large the order.Yukti₹20 per executed order
Applying to a public issueNothing. There is no fee to apply to a debenture issue and none on allotment.YuktiFree
The spreadThe gap between the best buy and best sell quote. On a thinly traded bond this is by far the largest cost and it is never billed.The marketVisible in the order book before you send
Accrued interestThe interest built up since the last coupon date, paid to the seller. It is not a charge; you receive it back in the next coupon.The sellerComputed on the trade
Exchange transaction chargeTurnover, at the rate applicable to the debt segment.NSE or BSEExchange circular, revised periodically
SEBI turnover feeTurnover.SEBISEBI circular
Stamp dutyThe buy side, at the rate notified for debt instruments.StateUniform rates notified under the Stamp Act
Goods and services taxBrokerage plus the transaction and regulatory charges, not the traded value.GovernmentPrevailing GST rate
Depository chargeEach instrument sold from demat on a given day, regardless of quantity.DepositoryThe published tariff sheet
Securities transaction taxNothing. It does not apply to debt instruments.Not applicableNot levied on this segment

Brokerage applies only to exchange trades and is published in the tariff sheet. A public issue of debentures has no brokerage. Statutory charges on a purchase are notified separately and appear on the contract note. The yield you compare bonds on should be after the costs you will actually pay.

Put a rate move through it before you buy

The second calculator takes the coupon, the years left and two yields, and shows exactly what a change in rates does to the price of that bond. It takes a minute, and it is the difference between choosing a maturity deliberately and discovering what duration means the hard way.

Tax, structurally

How the tax on fixed income is put together

Rates and thresholds are set in the Income-tax Act and amended by each Finance Act, so they are not quoted here. Fixed income has more moving parts than equity does, and knowing which part applies is most of the battle.

Interest and capital gain are taxed separately

The coupon is interest and is added to your income, taxed at the rate that applies to you. Any profit or loss from selling the bond before maturity is a capital gain or loss, taxed under a different set of rules with its own holding period. One instrument, two heads of income.

Consequence: the after-tax yield of a bond depends on your slab, so the same bond is worth different amounts to different people.

Listed and unlisted are different

The holding period that separates a short-term gain from a long-term one is not the same for a listed bond as for an unlisted one, and the rates differ too. Whether the instrument is listed is therefore worth establishing before you buy rather than at the point of computing the gain.

Check the current figures in: the Finance Act for the relevant year, or with a chartered accountant.

Tax-free means the interest, not the gain

The interest on a tax-free bond is exempt, which is the whole point of the instrument. A profit made by selling it in the secondary market before maturity is not exempt: it is a capital gain like any other. The two are frequently confused and the confusion is expensive.

Consequence: compare a tax-free yield against a taxable one only after grossing it up at your own slab.

Tax deducted at source, and when it is not

Interest above a threshold generally attracts deduction at source, which is a credit against your liability rather than the liability itself. The rules differ between instrument types and between securities held in demat and otherwise, and the deduction appears in your annual tax statement whether or not you noticed it.

Consequence: reconcile the interest you received against your annual tax statement before filing.

Zero coupon and accrual instruments

Treasury bills and other instruments issued at a discount pay no interest at all; the return is the difference between what you paid and what you receive. How that difference is characterised and when it is taxed follows its own rules, which are not the same as for a coupon-paying bond.

Consequence: do not assume a discount instrument is taxed like a capital gain. Check for the instrument you hold.

This is a description of how the tax treatment is structured and is not tax advice. Rates, thresholds and the classification of gains depend on the law in force for the relevant year and on your own circumstances. Please consult a qualified tax professional.

Plain definitions

The fixed income glossary

Every term you will meet in an offer document, on a quote screen or in a rating rationale, defined in one or two sentences. Type to search, or jump by letter.

All 53 terms.

Accrued interestMechanics

Interest built up since the last coupon date, which the buyer pays to the seller. It is not a charge: it comes back in the next coupon.

AuctionPrimary

The process by which government securities, state loans and treasury bills are issued. Retail bids are non-competitive, meaning you accept the yield the auction discovers.

Basis pointMarket

One hundredth of one percent. Yields move in basis points, so a move from 7.00 to 7.25 percent is twenty-five basis points.

BondConcept

A loan with written terms: how much interest, how often, and when the principal returns. You are a lender rather than an owner.

Bond ETFInstrument

An exchange traded fund holding a portfolio of bonds, bought on the exchange like a share. It gives diversification without your choosing individual issuers.

Call optionTerms

The issuer's right to repay the bond early on stated dates. It is used when rates have fallen, which is exactly when your bond had become valuable.

Clean priceMechanics

The price quoted on screen, excluding accrued interest. The dirty price, which includes it, is what you actually pay.

ConvexityAdvanced

The way a bond's price sensitivity itself changes as yields move. It is why the price rise from a rate fall is slightly larger than the fall from an equal rate rise.

CouponConcept

The fixed interest a bond pays, expressed as a percentage of face value. It does not change when market rates do; only the price does.

Coupon frequencyTerms

How often interest is paid: annually, half-yearly or quarterly. More frequent payments are worth slightly more, because you receive the money sooner.

Credit ratingCredit

An independent opinion on how likely a borrower is to pay a specific instrument on time and in full. It says nothing about price risk or liquidity.

Credit riskRisk

The risk that the borrower does not pay. A central government security has essentially none in rupees; a corporate bond has as much as the company does.

Cumulative optionTerms

A debenture option in which interest is not paid out but accumulated and returned with the principal at maturity. Convenient, and it removes any choice about reinvesting.

Current yieldYield

The annual coupon divided by the price you paid. It ignores the gain or loss at maturity, which is why yield to maturity is the more useful figure.

DebentureConcept

A debt instrument issued by a company. A non-convertible one will never turn into shares, so it remains a loan for its whole life.

DefaultRisk

Failure to pay interest or principal as promised. Recovery afterwards takes time, is rarely complete and is not certain.

Dirty priceMechanics

The clean price plus accrued interest: the amount actually debited when you buy.

DiscountMechanics

A bond trading below its face value, which happens when its coupon is below the prevailing market yield.

DowngradeCredit

A reduction in a credit rating. The price of the affected bond falls immediately, because buyers now want a higher yield for the same paper.

DurationRisk

How much a bond's price moves for a given change in yields. It rises with maturity and falls with the coupon, and it is the single most useful risk number on the page.

Face valueConcept

The amount returned at maturity and the amount on which the coupon is calculated. Also called par value.

Floating rate bondInstrument

A bond whose coupon resets periodically against a reference rate rather than staying fixed. Its price moves far less when rates change, because the coupon follows them.

G-SecInstrument

A dated security issued by the central government. The benchmark against which every other rupee yield is measured.

Inflation riskRisk

The risk that a fixed rupee return buys less by the time it arrives. It is the quiet risk in long-dated fixed income and it never appears in any rating.

Interest rate riskRisk

The risk that market rates move and the price of your bond moves against you. It is entirely separate from credit risk and is measured by duration.

Investment gradeCredit

The band of ratings above which default experience has historically been low. The gap between the lowest investment grade and the band below it is large.

IssuerConcept

Whoever is borrowing the money. It is the single most important fact about any bond and the one people examine least.

Liquidity riskRisk

The risk that you cannot sell without accepting a materially worse price. Many listed bonds trade rarely, which makes this a live problem rather than a theoretical one.

MaturityConcept

The date the face value is returned and the bond ceases to exist. Matching it to when you need the money removes most of the price risk.

Modified durationRisk

The standard measure of price sensitivity: a bond with a modified duration of seven moves roughly seven percent for each one percent move in yields, the opposite way.

NCDInstrument

A non-convertible debenture: company debt that stays debt. Often issued through public offers and frequently the highest advertised yield an individual sees.

Non-competitive biddingPrimary

The route by which a retail investor participates in a government auction without naming a yield, accepting the one the auction discovers.

ParMechanics

Face value. A bond trading at par is trading at exactly its face value, which happens when its coupon equals the market yield.

Perpetual bondInstrument

A bond with no maturity date, paying interest indefinitely, usually with the issuer holding a call option. Some bank issues of this kind rank very low in the queue and have been written down in the past.

PremiumMechanics

A bond trading above its face value, which happens when its coupon is above the prevailing market yield.

PrincipalConcept

The amount lent, returned at maturity. Capital loss on a bond held to maturity happens only through default, not through price movement.

Put optionTerms

Your right, where the terms provide one, to require the issuer to repay early on stated dates. The mirror image of a call option.

Rating rationaleCredit

The agency's written explanation of why it assigned a rating and what it is watching. A page long, free, and far more useful than the letters alone.

Reinvestment riskRisk

The risk that coupons received have to be reinvested at a lower rate than the one you originally locked in.

Repo rateMarket

The policy rate at which the central bank lends to banks. Changes to it, and expectations of changes, move the whole yield curve.

Retail direct facilityPrimary

The Reserve Bank's route for an individual to open an account and buy government securities, state loans and treasury bills directly, without an intermediary.

SDLInstrument

A state development loan: a dated security issued by a state government, usually yielding a little more than central paper of the same maturity.

Secured debentureTerms

One backed by a charge over specified assets of the issuer, ranking ahead of unsecured debt if things go wrong.

SpreadCredit

The extra yield a bond offers over a government security of the same maturity. It is the price of the credit risk, and comparing it is the analysis.

Subordinated debtTerms

Debt that ranks behind other creditors if the issuer fails. It pays more for exactly that reason, and the extra yield is not free money.

T-BillInstrument

A treasury bill: short government borrowing issued at a discount and redeemed at face value, with no coupon in between.

Target maturity fundInstrument

A debt scheme holding bonds that all mature around a stated date, after which it winds up. It restores some of the certainty of a single bond with the diversification of a fund.

Tax-free bondInstrument

An older public sector issue on which the interest is exempt from income tax. No longer issued, and available only in the secondary market.

TenorConcept

How long a bond runs from issue to maturity. A public issue commonly offers several tenors to choose between.

TrusteeStructure

The entity appointed to act on behalf of debenture holders, including in enforcement if the issuer fails to pay.

Yield curveMarket

The relationship between yield and maturity at a point in time. Its shape says what the market expects rates to do.

Yield to maturityYield

The return you would earn holding a bond to maturity, accounting for the coupons and for the gain or loss when the face value returns. The only yield worth comparing bonds on.

Zero coupon bondInstrument

A bond paying no interest, issued at a discount and redeemed at face value. The return is the difference, and it has no reinvestment risk.

Questions

Commonly asked about bonds and debentures