FSA said to face legal action over short-selling ban

FSA said to face legal action over short-selling ban
Reuters
Reuters - 11 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - The Financial Services Authority faces legal action from a group of leading hedge funds over the ban on short-selling financial shares it imposed on Thursday, the Sunday Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday reported.
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The papers said the hedge funds plan to seek compensation for losses suffered as a result of the ban, without naming the funds involved.

The FSA said it did not know of any impending legal action.

"We're not aware of any legal challenge. We're clear that the new code provisions are both valid and necessary," an FSA spokesperson said.

The FSA on Thursday banned investors from short-selling shares in over 30 financial companies, including the biggest banks and insurers, until Jan 16 next year.

Short-selling, in which an investor sells borrowed shares in the anticipation that their price will fall, allowing them to be bought back more cheaply, had been blamed for confidence-sapping declines in the stock price of leading financial institutions including mortgage lender HBOS .

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Australia leads Asia's wheat bowl recovery
AFP
By Madeleine Coorey AFP - Sunday, September 21 08:45 am

SYDNEY (AFP) - Asia's wheat stockpiles are set to grow this year as major exporter Australia, along with China and India, forecast larger crops, raising the prospect of lower prices for the golden grain, analysts say.
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Official figures released last week indicate Australia is likely to reclaim its rank as the world's third largest wheat exporter after the United States and Canada.

While China has predicted a 2.4 percent increase in wheat yields from a year ago, and India, the world's second largest wheat producer, has forecast this year's harvest will hit a record 78.4 million tonnes.

It is expected the increased crops will help ease prices which have surged as a result of the global food crisis which has hit developing nations, where wheat is often a staple food among millions of poor, particularly hard.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) said wheat production was forecast to be 22.5 million tonnes in 2008-2009 -- well above the 13 million tonnes harvested last year.

Analysts said more farmers had planted wheat after shrinking stockpiles and increased demand pushed prices to historic highs earlier this year, with the price hitting a record 10.93 US dollars a bushel in Chicago in February.

Wheat crops have been particularly attractive to Australian farmers seeking a quick income after years of devastating drought which has seen many move from sheep farming to the more lucrative grain.

John Hogan, who is acting branch manager in agriculture and trade at ABARE, said this year's northern hemisphere wheat harvests were also expected to be bigger "so there is expected to be an increase in world grain stock."

"Prices generally have been drifting lower because of expectations of a higher world crop," he added.

In Asia, the China National Grain and Oils Information Centre has forecast 2008 wheat yields will reach 112.5 million tonnes.

At the same time, China's wheat consumption has dropped to below 100 million tonnes a year, director of the centre, Shang Qiangmin told the Guangming Daily in April.

"Generally speaking the weather was good for growth later this year and we had plenty of rains," Feng Lichen, a trader at the Commodity Exchange in the northeast Chinese port city of Dalian told AFP.

India has forecast that its harvest for this year will rise 3.45 percent to 78.4 million tonnes, bettering a previous forecast of 76.78 million tonnes.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the harvest would be "the highest since India's independence" in 1947 thanks to plentiful monsoon rains.

On Wednesday, the government announced it would release 909,000 tonnes of wheat stocks for sale in the open market in September and October in a bid to ease prices and to meet demand during the upcoming religious festival season.

India also recently slightly eased a ban on wheat exports, allowing sales of wheat seeds, but traders believe the government would rather maintain big buffer stocks of wheat with general elections looming.

After poor harvests, India was forced in 2006 and 2007 to import more than seven million tonnes of wheat from costly world markets to boost its buffer stocks intended mainly to feed its hundreds of millions of poor, raising alarm about food security in the country of 1.1 billion people.

In Pakistan, 21 million tonnes of wheat were produced this year and the country is importing a further 2.5 million tonnes to meet its requirements, senior agriculture ministry official Qadir Bux Baloch told AFP.

But hoarding and smuggling to neighbouring Afghanistan could mean consumers still face hardships in getting wheat flour bags at the government-subsidised price of 300 rupees (3.80 US dollars) per 20 kilograms (44 pounds).

In Bangladesh, output of wheat -- a tiny percentage of the country's 28 million tonne annual cereal production which consists mainly of rice -- is also on the rise.

In the year to June 30, 2008, it rose by 14.3 percent to 0.8 million tonnes from 0.7 million tonnes in the previous year, according to official figures.

Weather will still be critical in the coming months in Australia, where timely rains will influence the forecasts.

But Mick Keogh, executive director of the Australian Farm Institute, said the situation was looking much better than 12 months ago when the European Union, Australia and Canada all experienced significant reductions in their wheat crops coupled with the general running down of stocks over the years.

He said with reasonable harvests now expected in North America and Europe and Australia -- which exports about 80 percent of its wheat -- "there will certainly be some kind of easing in grain prices over the next four to six months."

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Investors downbeat about equities

By John Authers and Michael Mackenzie in New York

Published: September 21 2008 23:11 | Last updated: September 21 2008 23:11

The lows set in equity markets last week should endure for a while, but investors are concerned that the risk of accidents remains high as details of the unprecedented government bail-out plans emerge and amid further scrutiny of short-selling in equity and credit markets.

Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, said the move by the US government to buy up to $700bn (€485bn, £382bn) of toxic mortgage-related assets would “probably be enough to set a floor for stocks until details emerge”.

But he added: “There is still a risk that as news dribbles out about the details the market will either give it up a thumbs up or thumbs down.” In the continuing febrile environment, the markets on Friday took the good intentions of the politicians in Washington on trust. After a strong rally in stocks, that could mean the market is primed for disappointment and investors were generally downbeat about what the next few weeks have in store.

There remain critical risks in the short-term of disorderly trading stemming from the ban on short sales, which could continue to spur only temporary buying of shares as positions are closed out. In addition, the widely- used credit default swaps market – the most liquid place to price credit – is also under regulatory scrutiny.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has expanded its ongoing investigation into possible market manipulation in the securities of certain financial institutions. Hedge fund managers, broker-dealers, and institutional investors with significant trading activity in financial issuers or positions in credit default swaps will be required, under oath, to disclose those positions to the SEC and provide certain other information.

“At the very least the classic short trade of selling stocks and buying credit insurance will slow down,” said Mr Paulsen. Mark Kiesel, portfolio manager at Pimco, said: “People are shell-shocked, the rules of the game have changed. My sense is that a lot of the move in stocks and credit [on Friday] is from short-covering, sparked by the SEC rules. It will take us a little bit of time before we know whether the worst is over.”

Hedge funds have got through the crisis relatively unscathed so far, at least when compared with banks, and many have done so by being aggressively short on the financial sector. But the breathtaking reversal at the end of last week, which saw financial stocks rise by a third in less than two days of trading, may well have pushed some hedge funds into difficulties, and force them to unwind trades.

Regulators will also have to be careful that the broader effects of the short ban do not have an effect on strategies that used options to limit risk – the purpose for which they were originally intended. If they have unwittingly rendered some conservative quantitative strategies unworkable, there is the potential for a disorderly unwind, as occurred last August when a number of large and apparently low-risk long-short quantitative funds lost up to a third of their value in a week.

The issue of Lehman Brothers also remains to be resolved. Hedge funds and other banks, who had outstanding trades with the investment bank, complain that reconciling positions has been a nightmare. The risk of a nasty surprise here can also not be ruled out. In the longer term, the greatest risk is that the US government’s vast new borrowing needs will result in more borrowing by the Treasury. To do this, it will have to offer more attractive yields, while the effect of extra supply in the market will also drive up yields. This could increase mortgage rates, again making housing less affordable, and choke off credit to businesses.
Additional reporting by Joanna Chung, Washington

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Defence treaty delay to hit UK

By Sylvia Pfeifer in London and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

Published: September 22 2008 03:00 | Last updated: September 22 2008 03:00

The ratification of a defence treaty designed to bolster American-British defence co-operation by removing red tape has been deferred until the next Congress.

The move will come as a blow to UK defence contractors.

The US Senate foreign relations committee has told the Bush administration there is not enough time in the current Congress to overcome concerns about both the US-UK agreement and a separate defence trade treaty with Australia.

When the treaty was signed by Tony Blair and President George W. Bush in June last year it was heralded as an agreement to help industry support joint British and US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US already provides fast-track approval for arms export applications from the UK, but British officials and industry executives have in the past complained that each application licence still takes weeks to approve.

The treaty would have ended the requirement for a separate US export licence for each piece of defence equipment and technology sent to the UK. For example, of the more than 8,000 licences granted in 2006, about half would not have been needed had the treaty been in force at the time.

The committee, which is chaired by Joseph Biden, the Democratic candidate for the vice-presidency, took the decision after the administration failed to address concerns that the treaties might conflict with existing US arms export laws.

The committee had been widely expected to pass the treaty before the end of this month, ahead of November's presidential elections.

Gerald Howarth, UK shadow defence procurement minister, said: "We've been pressing for this for two years and it's a pretty poor show that Congress has failed to accord more support to its number one ally.

"It sends the wrong signals," he added. "The British government has been hugely supportive of the US government."

The state department said it "regrets" the move to defer the treaties until the next Congress, after the administration had made an "unprecedented effort" to address concerns about three drafts of regulations to implement the treaties.

"The department remains committed to having both of these treaties ... enter into force as soon as possible," said a state department official.

"We are committed to working closely with the Senate to ensure that happens. We hope this will be one of the committee's early actions at the beginning of the 111th Congress."

One disagreement has centred on whether the treaties require Congress to amend the Arms Control Export Act. The administration wants to avoid legislation, which requires approval in the House, where there has traditionally been greater opposition to providing a special exception for the UK.

Derek Marshall, the director of aerospace defence and homeland security at the Society of British Aerospace Companies, said the organisation was hopeful "momentum created by the negotiations will not be lost".

The Ministry of Defence said that: "The government remains fully committed to the defence trade co-operation treaty and we are working closely with the US administration to find a way forward."

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Goldman, Morgan Stanley to become regulated banks

By Krishna Guha in Washington

Published: September 22 2008 03:04 | Last updated: September 22 2008 07:34

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last surviving big investment banks on Wall Street, have become regulated banks.

In a statement issued at 9.30pm Sunday, the Federal Reserve said it had approved their applications to become bank holding companies, subject to regulation by the Fed.

During the transition period, the Fed will make loans to both entities and to the broker-dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch against collateral acceptable for posting either by a bank or a securities firm.

The Fed will also lend to Goldman, Morgan and Merrill’s London-based broker dealer subsidiaries directly.

The Fed approval is subject to a five-day waiting period for potential antitrust issues.

The move in effect spells the end of the investment banking industry as a separate sector, leaving behind only small boutique securities firms. In doing so, it ends the decades-old division of the US financial industry into two halves, which dates back to legislation passed after the Great Depression.

It follows the collapse of Bear Stearns, sold to JP Morgan in March, and Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy protection last week.

It means that both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will be subject to bank capital requirements, which will be phased in over a transition period.

As banks, the move will greatly expand their ability to take deposits from savers, thus reducing their reliance on funding in the short-term repo market.

In statement, Goldman said: “We view regulation by the Federal Reserve Board as appropriate and in the best interests of protecting and growing our franchise across our diverse range of businesses.”

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive, said: “While accelerated by market sentiment, our decision to be regulated by the Federal Reserve is based on the recognition that such regulation provides [our] members with full prudential supervision and access to permanent liquidity and funding.”

Morgan Stanley said in a statement that it had sought the change in status in order to provide “maximum flexibility and stability to pursue new business opportunities as the financial marketplace undergoes rapid and profound changes.”

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Nomura clinches Lehman’s Asia arm

By Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong

Published: September 22 2008 07:03 | Last updated: September 22 2008 07:03

Nomura has clinched the battle to acquire the flagship Asian operations of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed US investment bank.

People familiar with the matter said that an acquisition heads of agreement was signed on Monday morning by senior executives representing the Japanese investment bank and Lehman’s Asian operations.

Nomura is buying Lehman’s entire regional franchise, which spans investment banking, fixed income and equities. However, for technical reasons the deal does not cover Lehman’s South Korean operations, although Nomura is expected to acquire those at a later date.

News of the deal will come as a massive relief to Lehman’s 3,000 staff in Asia, half of which are located in Nomura’s heartland of Tokyo.

The deal comes as people close the situation said that Nomura could also announce on Monday it is acquiring some of Lehman’s European operations.

Nomura clinched the Asia deal because it bid aggressively and Lehman’s management was reassured by their integration plans, according to people familiar with the matter.

The agreement follows a tense weekend of negotiations during which Lehman’s management and KPMG, the provisional liquidators of Lehman’s Hong Kong operations, met several banking groups interested in bidding for the assets, including Barclays and Standard Chartered.

“This is a great deal for the staff. The Asian franchise was evaporating and it is good to get a deal done so quickly,” said one person familiar with the agreement.

Nomura is expected to confirm the agreement and price it has paid in an official announcement later on Monday.

The Japanese bank’s victory will disappoint Barclays, the UK bank, which has already signed a deal to acquire Lehman’s North American investment banking and capital markets businesses, and has been vying with Nomura for Lehman’s European assets.

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農水省ずさん検査、報告書の大半「事故米、適正処理」
特集 商品偽装

　米穀加工販売会社「三笠フーズ」（大阪市）が汚染された工業用「事故米」を食用と偽り転売していた問題で、読売新聞が入手した、農林水産省作成の報告書類から、２００４年８月以降に同省が三笠フーズの九州工場で行った検査の全容がわかった。

　報告書類の大半は「適正に処理されていた」「（指摘事項）なし」と簡単な記載しかなく、４日間連続で全く同じ文言が記されたものもあった。同省は０４年度以降、９６回にわたり検査に入りながら不正を見抜けなかったが、報告内容からもずさんな検査の実態が浮き彫りになっている。

　同社九州工場（福岡県筑前町）への検査は、すべて同省福岡農政事務所が実施していた。

　報告書類は、出張伺いの「復命書」と「事故米穀加工立会日誌」の２種類で、読売新聞が入手したのは、０４年８月９日～今年８月１９日の分。

　三笠側は検査時、事故米を別の倉庫に移し替えたり、職員が立ち会う時だけ加工作業をしたりして偽装していたが、報告書には「間違いなく工業のり原料となり、袋詰めされているところを確認してきた」（０４年１１月）、「立ち会いを工場に出向き行った（異状なし）」（０６年１１月）と記載。

　さらに、別の記録には、加工後の販売先として、同社が伝票上だけの取引先としていた佐賀県の米穀仲介業「マルモ商事」の名や住所、電話番号が書かれていたものもあったが、農政事務所側は、マルモ商事に電話１本入れることなく不正に気づくことはなかった。

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Interbank loans at standstill

By Michael Mackenzie in New York

Published: September 20 2008 03:58 | Last updated: September 20 2008 03:58

Lending between banks ground to a standstill this week in a graphic illustration of the scale of the crisis in the financial markets.

Money market rates were pushed higher, raising funding costs for home owners and companies that borrow money at variable rates of interest.

While central banks set overnight rates, floating rate home loans, company borrowing and periodic payments in the vast interest rate derivatives market are determined by the three-month London Interbank Borrowing Rate (Libor) set each day by the British Bankers Association.

Since the credit crunch began in August 2007, Libor in the UK, US and eurozone markets has been extremely elevated when compared with overnight rates set by central banks. This breakdown between policy and borrowing rates for the broader economy has been a constant feature of the credit squeeze, and strains intensified this week.

“Borrowing between banks halted this week, as news of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy and the US government takeover of American International Group stunned investors who waited in fear of further defaults,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.

He said the run on US money market funds this week, pushed one-month Libor, a widely tracked money market benchmark, more than 10 times wider than its historical average.

The higher bank costs then feed through to higher interest rates across the economy.

The reluctance among banks and other institutions to lend to one another provoked emergency action by central banks on Thursday. Central banks pumped $180bn of dollar funding into markets, however those funds were quickly snapped up by banks and hoarded.

Overnight dollar Libor was set at 3.25 per cent on Friday. Although down from a fix of 6.44 per cent on Tuesday, it was still well above last week’s setting of 2.14 per cent.

Longer-term Libor settings continued to rise on Friday. The three-month dollar rate was at 3.12 per cent, up from 2.82 per cent a week ago. Sterling Libor fixed at 6 per cent on Friday, up from 5.70 per cent last week.

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Emerging markets face $111bn maturing debt

By David Oakley, Capital Markets Correspondent

Published: September 21 2008 22:52 | Last updated: September 21 2008 22:52

A $111bn backlog of bonds that need to be refinanced over the next year has built up in the emerging market economies and raised the threat of defaults and company closures.

With the ability to raise money in the debt markets severely restricted because of the credit crisis, emerging market banks and companies could struggle to roll over the maturing debt, according to ING Wholesale Banking.

David Spegel, global head of emerging markets strategy at ING, said: “Many corporates and banks in the emerging markets are highly levered without cash to fall back on. These will struggle should they need to raise money in the markets.

“The bond and loan markets are much harder to access now, and it could get worse, which means there will be defaults.”

Of the $111bn in bonds that will mature between now and the end of 2009, $24bn worth are held by junk-rated groups that have almost no hope of tapping a market that has become averse to risk.

Emerging market bond issuance has fallen steadily this year. Only $330m worth of bonds have been issuedin September compared with $10bn as recently as July. In August last year, issuance averaged about $20bn a month, according to ING.

Although sentiment improved last Friday, emerging markets have been hit, with the MSCI share index down 14 per cent since the start of the month and yields on the Embi+ sovereign bond index up 20 per cent against US Treasuries.

Over the past two weeks, emerging market equity and bond funds have had $6.5bn in outflows, close to records, according to EPFR Global, the data provider. This has extended a trend since June 1, when inflation fears put pressure on emerging markets. Outflows since then have risen to $35bn, a record for a 16-week period.

The bulk of the emerging debt due – $59bn – is from banks and financial groups, many of which are exposed amid fragile confidence in the sector.

Banks in Russia and Kazakhstan, which accumulated much debt before the credit crisis, are likely to be among the casualties in a climate where even an investment-grade bank such as Lehman Brothers can quickly be forced into default.

The outlook is better for countries such as Brazil and Chile, which are rich in cash as still-high commodity prices and relatively resilient economies continue to boost balance sheets.

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New steps to relieve commodities markets

By Javier Blas in Chicago

Published: September 20 2008 01:24 | Last updated: September 20 2008 01:24

New steps to relieve distressed commodities markets were on Friday launched by US regulators after Lehman and AIG woes triggered a wave of selling and emergency actions by exchanges earlier in the week.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main regulator of commodity markets, said it was ”prepared to provide temporary and conditioned hedge exemption relief for firms taking on swap positions from distressed companies”.

The move would allow Wall Street’s investment banks and trading companies to take over some large commodities’ positions held by Lehman Brothers and AIG, known as swaps, without surpassing the regulator and exchange usual speculative limits.

”This will allow for continued risk management and orderly functioning of the markets,” the CFTC said in a statement.

The insurer acts as a counterparty to a substantial portion of the $30bn invested in the DJ-AIG commodity index, the second most popular benchmark in the asset class. Lehman Brothers was also a medium-size player in commodities markets.

The CFTC added that it was co-ordinating with commodity futures exchanges to facilitate rare block trading, which allow the transfer of large positions.

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三菱ＵＦＪ、米モルガン・スタンレーに出資　最大9000億円程度

　三菱ＵＦＪフィナンシャル・グループ（ＭＵＦＧ）は22日、米証券大手モルガン・スタンレーに対し、第三者割当増資により20％を上限に出資すると発表した。出資比率は普通株式の10―20％の範囲としており、仮に20％の上限まで出資すれば筆頭株主になる可能性がある。

　最大出資額は9000億円程度。ＭＵＦＧから少なくとも1名の取締役も派遣する予定。米当局の認可を得て今後の具体的な方針を決定する。(21:59)

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朝青龍連敗なら引退決断も／秋場所

＜大相撲秋場所＞◇６日目◇１９日◇東京・両国国技館

　横綱朝青龍（２７＝高砂）が、再び引退危機に追い込まれた。東前頭４枚目安美錦（２９＝伊勢ケ浜）の立ち合いの変化に体が反応せず、送り出しで２敗目を喫した。すでに師匠高砂親方（元大関朝潮）には進退について相談しており、２０日の栃乃洋戦の結果次第で一気に引退を決断する可能性もある。横綱白鵬（２３）は栃乃洋（３４）を破って１敗をキープ。西前頭５枚目豪栄道（２２）は琴奨菊（２４）をはたき込み、６戦全勝を飾った。

　あっけなかった。朝青龍は仕切りで大げさに右手を高く上げておろし、左手もついて立ち合う。「両手をつけ」と厳しい姿勢の武蔵川理事長への挑発とも取れるアクションで真っすぐ突っ込むと、安美錦に左に変化された。瞬く間に土俵際に追い込まれ、抵抗もできないまま背中を押されての送り出し。舌を出し、首を横に振り、苦笑いした。

　「ダメだったね。ハハハっ」と人ごとのように笑う。「いい立ち合いをしようと思ったけど、相手にうまく食われた感じだな。踏み込みが良かった？　うーん、やっぱり反応が悪いね」。沈黙をはさみながらも無表情で取組を振り返る。悔しいそぶりは見せなかった。

　気力はもうなえている。実は、３日目雅山戦に敗れ、高砂親方に進退の相談をしていた。「調子が悪いです。この先、どうすればいいでしょう」。師匠は「進退は自分で決断して、オレに報告しろ」と返していた。その後朝青龍は、知人、友人に相談。「もう決心した。引退する」といったん決意したが、周囲の熱心な説得により翻意。それでも４日目稀勢の里戦では「負けたら、終わり」と気持ちを固めていたという。

　１度切れかけた気持ちを立て直すのは難しい。周囲には「いつでもやめる覚悟はある。もう十分やった」と漏らしており、近い関係者も「これ以上負けるようだと、２場所連続の休場ではなく、一気に引退するのではないか」と話す。この日の打ち出し後は、高砂親方に「明日、また頑張ります」と宣言し、師匠も報道陣に「まだ２敗は優勝圏内だ。休場することもない」と言い切った。だが、３敗となれば優勝は難しい。２０日の相手の栃乃洋には先場所も敗れている。「最強」にこだわってきた朝青龍が、いよいよ瀬戸際に追い込まれた。【柳田通斉】

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高砂親方、朝青龍は「最悪の場合、休場」
2008.9.22 20:51

高砂親方、朝青龍は「最悪の場合、休場」
安馬に敗れ４敗目。引き上げる朝青龍＝両国国技館（撮影・今井正人）【フォト】

　朝青龍の師匠である高砂親方（元大関朝潮）は２２日の打ち出し後、東京都墨田区の高砂部屋で取材に応じ、朝青龍について「最悪の場合、休場。本人が『もう少し考えさせてほしい』と話しているというので、あした（２３日）の午前中に決まるでしょう。取りたいというのであれば取らせてあげたい」と話した。

　高砂親方は直接、朝青龍と話していないため、微妙なニュアンスは不明だが、朝青龍に今場所限りで引退するつもりはなく、来場所で進退をかけることになりそうだ。しかし、１０日目も出場して敗れるようなことがあれば、再び引退危機に陥る可能性もある。

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朝青龍の休場濃厚に、２３日朝に正式決定
４敗目を喫して、厳しい表情の朝青龍＝鈴木信之撮影

　大相撲の横綱朝青龍（２７）（モンゴル出身、高砂部屋）が２２日、両国国技館で開催中の秋場所１０日目の２３日から休場することが濃厚となった。

　取組後、師匠の高砂親方（元大関朝潮）に休場を考えていることを伝えたといい、２３日朝、正式に決めるという。

　３日目に雅山に敗れて初黒星となった朝青龍は、その後も精彩を欠き、８日目で３敗と不振を極めた。この日も、同じモンゴル出身の関脇安馬に簡単に背中を向けて送り出され、今場所初の連敗で５勝４敗となっていた。朝青龍の休場は２場所連続６度目となる。

　朝青龍は先場所、左ひじ痛で６日目から途中休場した。今場所は再起をかけて臨んだが、左ひじの不調などが響いた。秋場所は千秋楽まで休む見通し。朝青龍は、次の九州場所（１１月９日初日・福岡国際センター）で進退をかけると見られ、武蔵川理事長も、「横綱が続けて休むと当然、そうなる」と語った。

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カルシウム＋ビタミンＤ、大腸がんのリスク低減

2008年9月22日

　カルシウムとビタミンＤをともに多く摂取すると、大腸がんにかかるリスクを下げる可能性があることが、九州大などの調査でわかった。近く米国のがん予防専門誌で報告する。

　古野純典・九大教授らのグループが、福岡市とその近郊に住み、大腸がんと診断された８３６人と、同じ年代で大腸がんではない８６１人から食事や生活習慣を詳しくたずね、関連を調べた。

　１日あたりのカルシウム摂取量が平均約７００ミリグラムと最多の人たちが大腸がんになるリスクは、同４００ミリグラムで最も少ない人たちと比べ、３割ほど低かった。しかし、カルシウムを多くとっても、ビタミンＤをあまりとらない人では、違いははっきりしなかった。

　そこで、カルシウムを平均約７００ミリグラムとり、かつビタミンＤを多くとる人（１日１０マイクログラムかそれ以上）で比べると、大腸がんリスクは、カルシウム摂取が少なくビタミンＤをあまりとらない人より、６割低かった。

　ビタミンＤはサンマやサケといった魚類やキノコ類に多い。日本人のカルシウム摂取量は１日あたり平均５４０ミリグラム余で不足ぎみ。ビタミンＤは８マイクログラムほど。大腸がんは肥満や飲酒でリスクが高まることがわかっている。

　牛乳を飲んでカルシウムを多くとると、大腸がんリスクが２割ほど下がることは、欧米グループが報告している。今回の結果をまとめた溝上哲也・国立国際医療センター部長（前・九大助教授）は「ビタミンＤはカルシウムの吸収を助けるので、大腸がんの予防効果を高めるのかも知れない。さらに効果を調べたい」と話す。（田村建二）