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Question 45  profitability index

The required return of a project is 10%, given as an effective annual rate. Assume that the cash flows shown in the table are paid all at once at the given point in time.

What is the Profitability Index (PI) of the project?

Project Cash Flows
Time (yrs) Cash flow ($)
0 -100
1 0
2 121
 



Question 130  debt terminology

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


Question 142  DDM, income and capital returns

When using the dividend discount model to price a stock:

### p_{0} = \frac{d_1}{r - g} ###

The growth rate of dividends (g):



Question 241  Miller and Modigliani, leverage, payout policy, diversification, NPV

One of Miller and Modigliani's (M&M's) important insights is that a firm's managers should not try to achieve a particular level of leverage in a world with zero taxes and perfect information since investors can make their own leverage. Therefore corporate capital structure policy is irrelevant since investors can achieve their own desired leverage at the personal level by borrowing or lending on their own.

This principal of 'home-made' or 'do-it-yourself' leverage can also be applied to other topics. Read the following statements to decide which are true:

(I) Payout policy: a firm's managers should not try to achieve a particular pattern of equity payout.

(II) Agency costs: a firm's managers should not try to minimise agency costs.

(III) Diversification: a firm's managers should not try to diversify across industries.

(IV) Shareholder wealth: a firm's managers should not try to maximise shareholders' wealth.

Which of the above statement(s) are true?



Question 308  risk, standard deviation, variance, no explanation

A stock's standard deviation of returns is expected to be:

  • 0.09 per month for the first 5 months;
  • 0.14 per month for the next 7 months.

What is the expected standard deviation of the stock per year ##(\sigma_\text{annual})##?

Assume that returns are independently and identically distributed (iid) and therefore have zero auto-correlation.



Question 390  real option, option

Some financially minded people insist on a prenuptial agreement before committing to marry their partner. This agreement states how the couple's assets should be divided in case they divorce. Prenuptial agreements are designed to give the richer partner more of the couples' assets if they divorce, thus maximising the richer partner's:



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.

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 633  personal tax

In 2014 the median starting salaries of male and female Australian bachelor degree accounting graduates aged less than 25 years in their first full-time industry job was $50,000 before tax, according to Graduate Careers Australia. See page 9 of this report. Personal income tax rates published by the Australian Tax Office are reproduced for the 2014-2015 financial year in the table below.

Taxable income Tax on this income
0 – $18,200 Nil
$18,201 – $37,000 19c for each $1 over $18,200
$37,001 – $80,000 $3,572 plus 32.5c for each $1 over $37,000
$80,001 – $180,000 $17,547 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000
$180,001 and over $54,547 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000
 

The above rates do not include the Medicare levy of 2%. Exclude the Medicare levy from your calculations

How much personal income tax would you have to pay per year if you earned $50,000 per annum before-tax?



Question 640  option, future, no explanation

Which one of the below option and futures contracts gives the possibility of potentially unlimited gains?



Question 948  VaR, expected shortfall

Below is a historical sample of returns on the S&P500 capital index.

S&P500 Capital Index Daily Returns
Ranked from Best to Worst
10,000 trading days from 4th August 1977 to
24 March 2017 based on closing prices.
Rank Date
(DD-MM-YY)
Continuously compounded
daily return (% per day)
1 21-10-87 9.23
2 08-03-83 8.97
3 13-11-08 8.3
4 30-09-08 8.09
5 28-10-08 8.01
6 29-10-87 7.28
9980 11-12-08 -5.51
9981 22-10-08 -5.51
9982 08-08-11 -5.54
9983 22-09-08 -5.64
9984 11-09-86 -5.69
9985 30-11-87 -5.88
9986 14-04-00 -5.99
9987 07-10-98 -6.06
9988 08-01-88 -6.51
9989 27-10-97 -6.55
9990 13-10-89 -6.62
9991 15-10-08 -6.71
9992 29-09-08 -6.85
9993 07-10-08 -6.91
9994 14-11-08 -7.64
9995 01-12-08 -7.79
9996 29-10-08 -8.05
9997 26-10-87 -8.4
9998 31-08-98 -8.45
9999 09-10-08 -12.9
10000 19-10-87 -23.36
 
Mean of all 10,000: 0.0354
Sample standard deviation of all 10,000: 1.2062
Sources: Bloomberg and S&P.
 

 

Assume that the one-tail Z-statistic corresponding to a probability of 99.9% is exactly 3.09. Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Based on the historical data, the 99.9% daily: