Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
DELHI UNIVERSITY
PROJECT WORK
SUBMITTED BY:
Rohit Thareja
B.com(Hons)3rd Year
Roll No.509
INDEX
37
Page no.
Introduction 4
Meaning of Government Securities 5
Need for investment in Govt. Securities 10
How are the Govt. Securities issued 13
Types of auctions for issue of Govt. Securities 14
Forms in which Govt. Securities can be held 17
Trading in Govt. Securities 19
Major players of Govt. Securities 21
Do’s & Dont’s while dealing in Securities 21
Consideration while undertaking Securities transaction 23
Reasons for change in price of Govt. Security 25
Ascertaining the price of Govt. Security 26
Settling Govt. Security Transaction 26
Role of Clearing Corporation of India 27
Calculation involved in Bond Price & Yield 28
Risks & Mitigations of holding Govt. Securities 34
Meaning of Money Market 36
Conclusion 37
Bibliography 39
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INTRODUCTION
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Government security is a tradable security issued by the Central
Government or the State Governments, acknowledging the Government’s
debt obligation. Such securities can be short term (usually called Treasury
Bills, with original maturities of less than 1 year) or long term (usually called
Government bonds or dated securities with original maturity of one year or
more). In India, the Central Government issues both Treasury Bills and
bonds or dated securities while the State Governments issue only bonds or
dated securities, which are called the State Development Loans (SDLs).
Government securities carry practically no risk of default and, hence, are
called risk-free instruments. Government of India also issue savings
instruments (Savings Bonds, National Saving Certificates (NSCs), etc.) or
special securities (Oil bonds, FCI bonds, fertilizer bonds, power bonds,
etc.) but they are usually not fully tradable and are not eligible for meeting
the SLR requirement.
Treasury Bills, which are money market instruments, are short term debt
instruments issued by the Government of India and are presently issued in
three tenors, viz., 91 day, 182 day and 364 day. Treasury Bills are zero
coupon securities and pay no coupon. They are issued at a discount and
redeemed at the face value at maturity. For example, a 91 day Treasury Bill
of Rs.100/- (face value) may be issued at a discount of say, Rs.1.80, that
is Rs.98.20 and redeemed at the face value of Rs.100/-. The return to the
investors is, therefore, the difference between the maturity value or face
value (i.e., Rs.100) and the issue price. Treasury Bills are issued through
auctions conducted by the Reserve Bank of India usually every Wednesday
and payments for the Treasury Bills purchased have to be made on the
following Friday. The Treasury Bills of 182 days and 364 days' tenure are
issued on alternate Wednesdays, that is, Treasury Bills of 364 day tenure
are issued on the Wednesday preceding the reporting Friday while
Treasury Bills of 182 days tenure are issued on the Wednesday prior to a
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non-reporting Friday. Currently, the notified amount for issuance of 91 day
and 182 day Treasury Bills is Rs.500 crores each whereas the notified
amount for issuance of 364 day Bill is higher at Rs.1000 crores.
Government, at its discretion, can also decide to issue additional amounts
of the Treasury Bills by giving prior notice. An annual calendar of T-Bill
issuances for the following financial year is released by the Reserve Bank
of India in the last week of March. The Reserve Bank of India also
announces the issue details of Treasury bills by way of press release every
week.
Dated Government securities are longer term securities and carry a fixed or
Floating coupon (interest rate) paid on the face value, payable at fixed time
periods (Usually half-yearly). The tenor of dated securities can be up to 30
years. The Public Debt Office (PDO) of the RBI acts as the registry /
depository of Government securities and deals with the issue, interest
payment and repayment of principal at maturity. Most of the dated
securities are fixed coupon securities. The nomenclature of a typical dated
fixed coupon Government security has the following features - coupon,
name of the issuer, maturity and face value. For example, 7.49% GOI
2017 would have the following features.
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The details of all the dated securities issued by the Government of India
are made available on the RBI website at http://rbi.org.in/ Scripts/
financialmarketswatch.aspx. Just as in the case of Treasury Bills, dated
securities of both Government of India and State Governments are issued
by RBI through auctions which are announced by the RBI a week in
advance through Press Releases and paid advertisements in major dailies
(for dated securities). The investors are thus given adequate time to plan
for the purchase of government securities through such auctions.
i) Fixed Rate Bonds – These are bonds on which the coupon rate is fixed
for the entire life of the bond. Most Government bonds are issued as fixed
rate bonds.
For example – 8.24%GS2018 was issued on April 22, 2008 for a tenor of
10 years maturing on April 22, 2018. Coupon on this security will be paid
Half-yearly at 4.12% (half yearly payment being the half of the annual
Coupon 8.24%) of the face value on October 22 and April 22 of each year.
ii) Floating Rate Bonds – Floating Rate bonds are securities which do not
have a fixed coupon rate and the coupon is re-set at pre-announced
intervals based on a specified methodology. The coupon is re-set at pre-
determined intervals (say, every six months or one year) by adding a
spread over a base rate. In the case of most floating rate bonds issued by
the Government of India, the base rate is the weighted average cut-off
yields of the last three 364 day Treasury Bill auction preceding the coupon
re-set date. Floating Rate Bonds were first issued in September 1995 in
India.
For example, a Floating Rate Bond was issued on July 2, 2002 for a Tenor
of 15 years, maturing on July 2, 2017. The base rate on the bond for the
coupon payments was fixed at 6.50% being the weighted average rate of
implicit yield on 364 day Treasury Bills during the preceding six auctions.
Further, in the bond auction, a cut-off spread (markup over the benchmark
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rate) of 34 basis points (0.34%) was decided. Hence the coupon for the first
six months was fixed at 6.84%. At the next reset date after six months,
assuming that the average cut-off yield in the preceding six auctions of 364
day Treasury Bill is 6.60%, coupon applicable for the next half year would
be 6.94%.
iii) Zero Coupon Bonds – Zero coupon bonds are bonds with no coupon
payments. Like Treasury Bills, they are issued at a discount to face value.
Such securities were issued by the Government of India in the 1990s, but
no issue was made thereafter.
iv) Capital Indexed Bonds – These are bonds, the principal of which is
linked to an accepted index of inflation with a view to protecting the holder
from inflation. A capital indexed bond, with the principal hedged against
inflation, was issued in December 1997. These bonds matured in 2002.
Steps are now being taken to revive the issuance of the Inflation Indexed
Bonds wherein payment of both the coupon and principal payments on the
bonds will be linked to an Inflation Index (Wholesale Price Index).
v) Bonds with Call/ Put Options – Bonds can also be issued with
features of optionality wherein the issuer can have the option to buy back
(call option) or the investor can have the option to sell the bond (put option)
to the issuer during the currency of the bond. A bond (viz., 6.72%GS2012)
with call / put option was issued in India in the year 2002 which will mature
in 2012. 6.72%GS2012 was issued on July 18, 2002 for a maturity of 10
years maturing on July 18, 2012. The optionality on the bond could be
exercised after completion of five years tenure from the date of issuance on
any coupon date falling thereafter. The Government has the right to buy
back the bond (call opt ion) at par value (equal to the face value) while the
investor has the right to sell the bond (put option) to the Government at par
value at the time of any of the half-yearly coupon dates starting from July
18, 2007.
vii) Steps are being taken to introduce new types of instruments like
STRIPS (Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of
Securities). STRIPS are instruments wherein each cash flow of the fixed
coupon security is converted into a separate tradable Zero Coupon Bond
and traded. For example, when Rs.100 of the 8.24%GS2018 is stripped,
each cash flow of coupon (Rs.4.12 each half year) will become coupon
STRIP and the principal payment (Rs.100 at maturity) will become a
principal STRIP. These cash flows are traded separately as independent
securities in the secondary market.
State Governments also raise loans from the market. SDLs are dated
securities issued through an auction similar to the auctions conducted for
dated securities issued by the Central Government. Interest is serviced at
half-yearly intervals and the principal is repaid on the maturity date. Like
dated securities issued by the Central Government, SDLs issued by the
State Governments qualify for SLR. They are also eligible as collaterals for
borrowing through market repo as well as borrowing by eligible entities
from the RBI under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF).
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Holding of cash in excess of the day -to-day needs of a bank does not give
any return to it. Investment in gold has attendant problems in regard to
appraising its purity, valuation, safe custody, etc. Investing in Government
securities has the following advantages:
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Provident Funds are also required to hold Government securities as
indicated below:
All primary (urban) co- operative banks (UCBs) are presently required to
invest a certain minimum level of their SLR holdings in the form of
Government and other approved securities as indicated below:
c. Non-scheduled UCBs with DTL less than Rs. 25 crores have to hold
10 percent of their SLR requirements in government and other
approved securities.
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As per Section 24 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949, the State Co-
operative Banks (SCBs) and the District Central Co -operative Banks
(DCCBs) are required to maintain in cash, gold or unencumbered approved
securities, valued at a price not exceeding the current market price, an
amount which shall not, at the close of business on any day, be less than
25 per cent of its demand and time liabilities as part of the SLR
requirement. DCCBs are allowed to meet their SLR requirement by
maintaining cash balances with their respective State Co-operative Bank.
Since April 2002, all the RRBs are required to maintain their entire
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) holdings in Government and other approved
securities. The current SLR requirement for the RRBs is 25 percent of their
Demand and Time Liabilities (DTL).
Presently, RRBs have been exempted from the 'mark to market' norms in
respect of their SLR-securities. Accordingly, RRBs have been given
freedom to classify their entire investment portfolio of SLR-securities under
'Held to Maturity' and value them at book value.
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revised in terms of which investments up to 55% of the investible funds are
permitted in a basket of instruments consisting of Central Government
securities, State Government securities and units of gilt funds, effective
from April 2009.
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prior to the actual date of auction. RBI places the notification and a Press
Release on its website (www.rbi.org.in) and also issue an advertisement in
leading English and Hindi newspapers. Information about auctions is also
available with the selected branches of public and private sector banks and
the Primary Dealers.
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Yield based auction of a new security
• Coupon: 8.24%
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case each would get Rs. 50 crores. Bid numbers 7 and 8 are rejected as
the yields are higher than the cut-off yield.
The Public Debt Office (PDO) of the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai acts
as the registry and central depository for the Government securities.
Government securities may be held by investors either as physical stock or
in dematerialized form. From May 20, 2002, it is mandatory for all the RBI
regulated entities to hold and transact in Government securities only in
dematerialized (SGL) form. Accordingly, UCBs are required to hold all
Government securities in demat form.
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transfer of a stock certificate is final and valid only when t he same is
registered in the books of PDO.
ii. Gilt Account: As the eligibility to open and maintain an SGL account
with the RBI is restricted, an investor has the option of opening a Gilt
Account with a bank or a Primary Dealer which is eligible to open a
Subsidiary General Ledger Account (CSGL) with the RBI. Under this
arrangement, the bank or the Primary Dealer would maintain the holdings
of its constituents in a CSGL account (which is also known as SGL II
account) with the RBI as a custodian on behalf of the Gilt Account holders.
The servicing of securities held in the Gilt Accounts is done electronically,
facilitating hassle free trading and maintenance of the securities. Receipt of
maturity proceeds and periodic interest is also faster as the proceeds are
credited to the current account of the custodian bank / PD with the RBI and
the custodian (CSGL account holder) immediately passes on the credit to
the Gilt Account Holders (GAH).
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How does the trading in Government securities take place?
The Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) for electronic dealing and reporting
of transactions in government securities was introduced in February 2002.
It facilitates the members to submit electronically, bids or applications for
primary issuance of Government Securities when auctions are conducted.
NDS also provides an interface to the Securities Settlement System (SSS)
of the Public Debt Office, RBI, and Mumbai thereby facilitating settlement of
transactions in Government Securities (both outright and repos) conducted
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in the secondary market. Membership to the NDS is restricted to members
holding SGL and/or Current Account with the RBI, Mumbai.
Gilt Account holders have been given indirect access to NDS through
custodian institutions. A member (who has the direct access) can report on
the NDS the transaction of a Gilt Account holder in government securities.
Similarly, Gilt Account holders have also been given indirect access to
NDS-OM through the custodians. However, currently two gilt account
holders of t he same custodian are not permitted to undertake repo
transactions between themselves.
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Major players in the Government securities market include commercial
banks and primary dealers besides institutional investors like insurance
companies. Primary Dealers play an important role in market making of
securities. Other participants include co-operative banks, regional rural
banks, mutual funds, provident and pension funds. Foreign Institutional
Investors (FIIs) are allowed to participate in the Government securities
market within the quantitative limits prescribed from time to time. Corporate
also buy/ sell the government securities to manage their overall portfolio
risk.
The important Do’s & Don’ts are summarized in the Box I below.
BOX I
Do’s & Don’ts for Dealing in Government Securities
Do’s
• Monitor all transactions to see that delivery takes place on settlement day.
The funds account and investment account should be reconciled on the
same day before close of business.
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• Give preference for direct deals with counter parties.
• Use CSGL/ Gilt Accounts for holding the securities and maintain such
accounts in the same bank with whom the cash account is maintained.
• Restrict the role of the broker to that of bringing the two parties to the deal
together, if a deal is put through with the help of broker.
• Have a list of approved brokers. Utilize only brokers registered with NSE
or BSE or OTCEI for acting as intermediary.
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(bonds of nationalized banks, unlisted securities, unlisted shares of all-India
Financial Institutions and privately placed debt securities).
Don’ts
• Do not use brokers in the settlement process at all, i.e., both funds
settlement and delivery of securities should be done with the counter-
parties directly.
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largely to meet statutory requirements, it may be advisable to avoid taking
undue market risk and buy securities with shorter maturity. Within the
shorter maturity range (say 5-10 years) it would be safer to buy securities
which are liquid, that is, securities which trade in relatively larger volumes
in the market. The information about such securities can be obtained from
the website of the CCIL (www.ccilindia.com), which gives real-time
secondary market trade data on both NDS and NDS-OM. Since pricing is
more transparent in liquid securities, prices for these securities are easily
obtainable thereby reducing the chances of being misled/misinformed on
the price in these cases. The coupon rate of the security is equally
important for the investor as it affects the total return from the security. In
order to determine which security to buy, the investor must look at the Yield
to Maturity (YTM) of a security. Thus, once the maturity and yield (YTM) is
decided, the UCB may select a security by looking at the price/yield
information of securities traded on NDS-OM or by negotiating with bank or
PD or broker.
ii) Where and Whom to buy from- In terms of transparent pricing, the
NDS-OM is the safest because it is a live and anonymous platform where
the trades are disseminated as they are struck and where counterparties to
the trades are not revealed. In case the trades are conducted on the
telephone market, it would be safe to trade directly with a bank or a PD. In
case one uses a broker, care must be exercised to ensure that the broker is
registered on NSE or BSE or OTC Exchange of India. Normally, the active
debt market brokers may not be interested in deal sizes which are smaller
than the market lot (usually Rs.5 crore). So it is better to deal directly with
bank / PD or on NDS-OM, which also has a screen for odd-lots. Wherever
a broker is used, the settlement should not happen through the broker.
Trades should not be directly executed with any counterparties other than a
bank, PD or a financial institution, to minimize the risk of getting adverse
prices.
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iii) How to ensure correct pricing – Since investors like UCBs have very
small requirements, they may get a quote/price, which is worse than the
price for standard market lots. To be sure of prices, only liquid securities
may be chosen for purchase. A safer alternative for investors with small
requirements is to buy under the primary auctions conducted by RBI
through the non-competitive route. Since there are bond auctions about
twice every month, purchases can be considered to coincide with the
auctions.
Primary Market
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Secondary Market
(CCIL)?
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fails to provide funds / securities, CCIL will make the same available from
its own means. For this purpose, CCIL collects margins from all participants
and maintains ‘Settlement Guarantee Fund’.
What are the basic mathematical concepts one should know for
calculations involved in bond prices and yields?
Box II
Money has time value as a Rupee today is more valuable and useful than a
Rupee a year later.
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PV =
PV =
An illustration
Net present value (NPV) or net present worth (NPW) is defined as the
Present value of net cash flows. It is a standard method for using the time
value of money to appraise long-term projects. Used for capital budgeting,
and widely throughout economics, it measures the excess or shortfall of
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cash flows, in present value (PV) terms, once financing charges are met.
Use Advanced
Financial Calculators.
Formula
Each cash inflow/outflow is discounted back to its present value (PV). Then
They are summed. Therefore
NPV =
Where
t - The time of the cash flow
N - The total time of the project
r - The discount rate (the rate of return that could be earned on an
investment in the financial markets with similar risk.)
- The net cash flow (the amount of cash) at time t (for educational
In the illustration given above under the Present value, if the three cash
flows accrues on a deposit of Rs. 275, the NPV of the investment is equal
to 294.10-275 = Rs.19.10
If interest rates or market yields rise, the price of a bond falls. Conversely,
if interest rates or market yields decline, t he price of the bond rises. In
other words, the yield of a bond is inversely related to its price. The
relationship between yield to maturity and coupon rate may be stated as
follows:
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• When the market price of the bond is less than the face value, i.e., the
bond sells at a discount, YTM > current yield > coupon yield.
• When the market price of the bond is more than its face value, i.e., the
bond sells at a premium, coupon yield > current yield > YTM.
• When the market price of the bond is equal to its face value, i.e., the
bond sells at par, YTM = current yield = coupon yield.
An investor who purchases a bond can expect to receive a return from one
or more of the following sources:
• Any capital gain (or capital loss) when the bond matures or it is sold; and
i) Coupon Yield
Illustration:
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Coupon: 8.24%
Illustration:
The current yield for a 10 year 8.24% coupon bond selling for Rs.103.00
per Rs.100 par value is calculated below:
The current yield considers only the coupon interest and ignores other
sources of return that will affect an investor’s return.
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procedure. A calculator or software can be used to obtain a bond’s yield-to-
maturity easily (please see the Box III).
Box III
YTM Calculation
YTM could be calculated manually as well as using functions in any
standard spread sheet like MS Excel.
104 = 4/ + 4/ + 4/ + 4/
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the security expires.
Day count convention refers to the method as to how the number of days
is counted for calculation of prices and yields of bonds. As the use of
different day count conventions can result in different prices/ yields, it is
appropriate that all the participants in the market follow a uniform day count
convention. For example, the conventions followed in Indian market are
given below.
Bond market: The day count convention followed is 30/360 which means
that irrespective of the actual number of days in a month, the number of
days is taken as 30 per month and the number of days in a year is taken as
360.
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Government securities are generally referred to as risk free instruments, in
view of the fact that sovereigns are not expected to default on their
payments. However, as is the case with any financial instrument, there are
risks associated with holding the Government securities. Hence, it is
important to identify and understand such risks and take appropriate
measures for mitigation of the same. The following are the major risks
associated with holding Government securities.
Market risk – Market risk arises out of adverse movement of prices of the
securities that are held by an investor due to change in interest rates. This
will result in booking losses on marking to market or realizing a loss if the
securities are sold at the adverse prices. Small investors, to some extent,
can mitigate market risk by holding the bonds till maturity so that they can
realize the yield at which the securities were actually bought.
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Risk Mitigation
Holding securities till maturity could be a strategy through which one could
avoid market risk. Rebalancing the portfolio wherein the securities once
they become short term are sold and new securities of longer tenor are
bought could be followed to manage the portfolio risk. However,
rebalancing involves transaction and other costs and hence needs to be
used judiciously. Market risk and reinvestment risk could also be managed
through Asset Liability Management (ALM) by matching the cash flows with
liabilities. ALM could also be undertaken by matching the duration of the
cash flows. Advanced risk management techniques involve use of
derivatives like Interest Rate Swaps (IRS) through which the nature of cash
flows could be altered. However, these are complex instruments requiring
advanced level of expertise for proper understanding. Adequate caution,
therefore, need to be observed for undertaking the derivatives transactions
and such transactions should be undertaken only after having complete
understanding of the associated risks and complexities.
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ii. Notice money market – The tenor of the transactions is from 2 days to
14 days.
iii. Term money market – The tenor of the transactions is from 15 days to
one year.
CONCLUSION
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related markets. Furthermore, large borrowings by the Government also
provide an impetus to the development of the bond market.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
NEWS PAPERS:
Times of India
The Economic Times
MAGAZINES:
Business Today
India Today
WEB:
www.google.com
www.cab.org.in
www.rbi.org.in
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