Contents
Bond Glossary ................................................................................................................................... 2
How to find bonds in Singapore ......................................................................................................... 3
How to read Singapore Government Bond names in SGX ................................................................... 4
How to read Singapore Savings Bonds names .................................................................................... 7
How to read Corporate Bond names in SGX ....................................................................................... 7
How to analyse Corporate Bonds ....................................................................................................... 8
1
Government bonds: bonds that are issued by a government. The securities with 1 year maturity are
usually known as treasury bills. Most government bonds are rated by credit rating agencies. Not all
government bonds are investment grades.
Corporate bonds: bonds that are issued by corporations or companies to raise funds for their
business operations. These usually carry more risks and hence their interest rates are usually higher.
Some of the corporate bonds are not rated and bond investors would need to carry out their own
assessments.
Perpetual bonds: bonds with no maturity date. The issuer does not have to redeem the bond,
investors can choose to sell these bonds in the secondary market.
Callable Bonds: type of bond that can be redeemed by its issuer before its maturity date. Issuers are
more likely to call their bonds when the bank interest rates are low in order to refinance their debt
at a lower rate of interest.
Bond prices: Bond prices are used in the secondary market, they can be affected many factors such
as interest rates, credit rating of the issuer, accrued interest, and demand and supply.
Secondary market: where bonds can be traded - a bondholder can sell it to another buyer before
the maturity.
Face value or par value: underlying value of a bond. Upon maturity, bondholders are paid the face
value of the bond.
Coupon rate: interest rate payout of the bond, usually presented as a percentage of the face or par
value.
Yield to maturity (YTM) is used interchangeably with 'book yield' or 'redemption yield'. It refers to
the annual returns for the investor from the point of purchase to the maturity date of the bond. This
happens when the bond price you have paid for is different from the par value. Your yield is not
equivalent to the coupon rate anymore.
Current yield: annual income of the bond divided by the current price of the bond. It is used to
calculate the return of a bond in the condition that the investor buys and sells the bond before its
maturity.
Yield to Call: Only applicable to callable bonds. Refers to the yield of a callable bond on the call date.
Clean Price: reflects the current price of the bond with the discounted future cash flows taken into
account.
Dirty Price: reflects the clean price of a bond plus accrued interest, which is interest that has been
accumulated since the last coupon payout. Bond prices in Singapore’s secondary market are
reflected as dirty price. Dirty price of a bond increases as the next coupon payout date draws near.
2
You can find a list of all the bonds in the Singapore market at the SGX website.
Just mouse over ‘Market Information’ and click on ‘Fixed Income’.
Source: SGX website
Alternatively, you can click here for the list of bonds in Singapore:
http://www.sgx.com/wps/portal/sgxweb/home/marketinfo/fixed_income/bonds/!ut/p/a1/04_Sj9C
Pykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfGjzOKNHB1NPAycDSwNLNwtDDxdw8J8Xdw8DN1djYAKIpEVIcamht4hjoFmjiFhRp6e5oRp98AB3A0IKQ_XD8KVYmFgTvQBYYBQT5OIcZG7gGG6AqwOBFNQZgBSIG_
U3BwWJhhoKsxVAEeRxbkhkYYZHqmAwAwuxel/dl5/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/
3
Originally posted on Dr Wealth (BigFatPurse): How to read Singapore Government Bond names
NA12100N 420401 10
This is not some product serial code or a WWII encrypted message. This is the SGS bond name which
appeared on SGX website.
What does it even mean?
Let’s break the name into 3 parts. The left set = NA12100N. The middle set = 420401. The right set =
10.
4
The Left Set
The table is the Code Breaker for the left set.
N
A
12
100
N
N means that
A refers to the original
12 refers to
100 means
The last
this security
maturity of the security, in
the year the
that this was
alphabet is
is a SGS Bond
this case 30 years.
security was
the first 30-
analogous
issued, in
year security
to the last
this case
issued in the
alphabet of
2012.
year 2012.
the NRIC,
and serves
Additional
The following explains what
Naturally, a
If there had
information:
other alphabets/numbers
bond issued
been a
B means the
stand for, in the case of SGS
in 2009
second 30Y
security is a
bonds:
would take
SGS issued in
the numbers
2012, then it
09 here.
would have
SGS Treasury
Bill.
–
–
Z: original maturity of 20
years
taken the
Y: original maturity of 15
numbers 101.
a similar
function.
This letter is
used to
validate the
issue code.
years
–
X: original maturity of 10
years
–
7: original maturity of 7
years
–
2: original maturity of 2
years
For SGS Treasury bills:
–
S: original maturity of 6
months
–
Y: original maturity of 1
year
5
The Middle Set
The middle set of numbers shows the maturity date of the bond in this sequence, YYMMDD.
In our example, the middle set is 420401, and it means this bond matures in 1st Apr 2042.
The Right Set
So far, the right set has always been 10. I have not seen other numbers for SGS bonds. This means
that 1 standard ‘lot’ size is 10 bonds. So a $100 bond will require a minimum investment of 10 x
$100 = $1,000.
6
Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) are denoted as such during the application process; “GX15100F”
Upon successful application, the same SSB will be reflect “SBOCT15 GX15100F” in your CDP account
and CDP-SBOCT15 in your bank account statement.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) explains the nomenclature of SSBs in their FAQ:
GX15100F is the unique issue code assigned by MAS. The first two letters, “GX”,
denote that this is a Savings Bond. The next four numbers show the year and month
the bond was issued, e.g. “GX15100F” is the bond issued in Oct 2015. The last digit
(“0”) and alphabet (“F”) are for MAS’ internal reference.
Below are two examples of corporate bond names listed on the SGX. Here’s how we can interpret
them:
7
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8