Not available in 2017/18
FM492     
Principles of Finance

This information is for the 2017/18 session.

Teacher responsible

Prof Richard Payne

Dr Hongda Zhong

Availability

This course is not available as an outside option.

Pre-requisites

Students must have completed: one Economics course, one Maths course and one Statistics course at an undergraduate level.

Course content

This course examines the theory of financial decision-making by firms and examines the behaviour of the capital markets in which these decisions are taken. The topics covered are the theory of capital budgeting under certainty in perfect and imperfect capital markets, portfolio theory, equity and bond markets, the capital asset pricing model, efficient markets, derivative pricing, sources of funds, basic theory of capital structure and the cost of capital, company dividend decisions and financial markets and institutions.

Teaching

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 11 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of lectures and 1 hour of seminars in the ST.

Formative coursework

Students are expected to produce written work for classes and to make positive contributions to class discussion.

Indicative reading

Detailed course programmes and reading lists are distributed at the start of the course. Illustrative texts include: Principles of Corporate Finance by Richard Brealey, Stewart Myers, and Franklin Allen, McGraw-Hill Inc.

Assessment

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.

Key facts

Department: Finance

Total students 2016/17: 7

Average class size 2016/17: 7

Controlled access 2016/17: Yes

Value: One Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Course survey results

(2013/14 - 2015/16 combined)

1 = "best" score, 5 = "worst" score

The scores below are average responses.

Response rate: 80%

Question

Average
response

Reading list (Q2.1)

1.6

Materials (Q2.3)

1.8

Course satisfied (Q2.4)

1.6

Lectures (Q2.5)

1.7

Integration (Q2.6)

1.7

Contact (Q2.7)

1.6

Feedback (Q2.8)

1.6

Recommend (Q2.9)

Yes

90%

Maybe

7%

No

3%