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l 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