Fight Finance

Question 29  interest only loan

You want to buy an apartment priced at $300,000. You have saved a deposit of $30,000. The bank has agreed to lend you the $270,000 as an interest only loan with a term of 25 years. The interest rate is 12% pa and is not expected to change.

What will be your monthly payments? Remember that mortgage payments are paid in arrears (at the end of the month).

(a) 900

(b) 2,700

(c) 2,722.1

(d) 2,843.71

(e) 34,424.99

Question 129  debt terminology

An 'interest rate' is the same thing as a 'coupon rate'. or ?

Question 282  expected and historical returns, income and capital returns

You're the boss of an investment bank's equities research team. Your five analysts are each trying to find the expected total return over the next year of shares in a mining company. The mining firm:

• Is regarded as a mature company since it's quite stable in size and was floated around 30 years ago. It is not a high-growth company;
• Share price is very sensitive to changes in the price of the market portfolio, economic growth, the exchange rate and commodities prices. Due to this, its standard deviation of total returns is much higher than that of the market index;
• Experienced tough times in the last 10 years due to unexpected falls in commodity prices.
• Shares are traded in an active liquid market.

Your team of analysts present their findings, and everyone has different views. While there's no definitive true answer, whose calculation of the expected total return is the most plausible? Assume that:

• The analysts' source data is correct and true, but their inferences might be wrong;
• All returns and yields are given as effective annual nominal rates.

(a) Alice says 5% pa since she calculated that this was the average total yield on government bonds over the last 10 years. She says that this is also the expected total yield implied by current prices on one year government bonds.

(b) Bob says 4% pa since he calculated that this was the average total return on the mining stock over the last 10 years.

(c) Cate says 3% pa since she calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share price over the last 10 years.

(d) Dave says 6% pa since he calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share market price index (not the accumulation index) over the last 10 years.

(e) Eve says 15% pa since she calculated that this was the discount rate implied by the dividend discount model using the current share price, forecast dividend in one year and a 3% growth rate in dividends thereafter, which is the expected long term inflation rate.

Question 469  franking credit, personal tax on dividends, imputation tax system, no explanation

A firm pays a fully franked cash dividend of $70 to one of its Australian shareholders who has a personal marginal tax rate of 45%. The corporate tax rate is 30%.

What will be the shareholder's personal tax payable due to the dividend payment?

(a) $13.50

(b) $15.00

(c) $30.00

(d) $31.50

(e) $45.00

Question 475  payout ratio, dividend, no explanation

The below screenshot of Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA) details were taken from the Google Finance website on 7 Nov 2014. Some information has been deliberately blanked out.

What was CBA's approximate payout ratio over the 2014 financial year?

Note that the firm's interim and final dividends were $1.83 and $2.18 respectively over the 2014 financial year.

(a) 2.48%

(b) 4.85%

(c) 77.00%

(d) 129.93%

(e) 247.53%

Question 529  DDM, real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation, real estate, no explanation

If housing rents are constrained from growing more than the maximum target inflation rate, and houses can be priced as a perpetuity of growing net rental cash flows, then what is the implication for house prices, all things remaining equal? Select the most correct answer.

(a) Real house prices must grow by more than the maximum target inflation rate in perpetuity.

(b) Real house prices must grow by less than or equal to the maximum target inflation rate in perpetuity.

(c) Nominal house prices must grow by more than the maximum target inflation rate in perpetuity.

(d) Nominal house prices must grow by less than or equal to the maximum target inflation rate in perpetuity.

(e) Real house prices must grow by more than nominal house prices in perpetuity.

Background: Since 1990, many central banks across the world have become 'inflation targeters'. They have adopted a policy of trying to keep inflation in a predictable narrow range, with the hope of encouraging long-term lending to fund more investment and maintain higher GDP growth.

Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), has specifically stated their inflation target range is between 2 and 3% pa.

Some Australian residential property market commentators suggest that because rental costs comprise a large part of the Australian consumer price index (CPI), rent costs across the nation cannot significantly exceed the maximum inflation target range of 3% pa without the prices of other goods growing by less than the target range for long periods, which is unlikely.

Question 604  inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

Apples and oranges currently cost $1 each. Inflation is 5% pa, and apples and oranges are equally affected by this inflation rate. Note that when payments are not specified as real, as in this question, they're conventionally assumed to be nominal.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) A payment of $105 now has a real value of 105 apples or oranges now.

(b) A payment of $1 now has a real value of one apple or orange now.

(c) A payment of $105 in one year has a real value of 100 apples or oranges in one year.

(d) A payment of $105 in one year is worth $105 in real terms today.

(e) A payment of one apple now has a real value of one orange now.

Question 688  future, hedging

A pig farmer in the US is worried about the price of hogs falling and wants to lock in a price now. In one year the pig farmer intends to sell 1,000,000 pounds of hogs. Luckily, one year CME lean hog futures expire on the exact day that he wishes to sell his pigs. The futures have a notional principal of 40,000 pounds (about 18 metric tons) and currently trade at a price of 63.85 cents per pound. The underlying lean hogs spot price is 77.15 cents per pound. The correlation between the futures price and the underlying hogs price is one and the standard deviations are both 4 cents per pound. The initial margin is USD1,500 and the maintenance margin is USD1,200 per futures contract.

Which of the below statements is NOT correct?

(a) The pig farmer should sell futures to hedge against the danger of falling hog prices.

(b) The pig farmer should transact 30 lean hogs futures contracts with tailing since futures contracts require margins.

(c) The total initial margin that must be paid to the pig farmer’s futures broker is $45,000.

(d) If the futures price falls by more than 0.01175 cents per pound (rounded to 5 decimal places) then the pig farmer will receive a margin call from their broker.

(e) The future is trading in backwardation since the spot price exceeds the futures price, so the current basis is positive 13.30 cents.

Question 730  DDM, income and capital returns, no explanation

A stock’s current price is $1. Its expected total return is 10% pa and its long term expected capital return is 4% pa. It pays an annual dividend and the next one will be paid in one year. All rates are given as effective annual rates. The dividend discount model is thought to be a suitable model for the stock. Ignore taxes. Which of the following statements about the stock is NOT correct?

(a) The expected dividend yield is 6% pa.

(b) The expected growth rate of the dividend is 4% pa.

(c) The dividend in one year is expected to be $0.06.

(d) The price is expected to be $1.06 in one year, just before the dividend is paid.

(e) The price is expected to be $1.04 in one year, just after the dividend is paid.

Question 934  standard deviation, risk

Which of the following statements about an asset’s standard deviation of returns is NOT correct? All other things remaining equal, the higher the asset’s standard deviation of returns:

(a) The more risky the asset is from a financial analyst’s perspective.

(b) The higher the chance of a large loss.

(c) The higher the chance of a large gain.

(d) The more predictable the asset’s future price is.

(e) The higher the variance of returns.