Nikkei down on foreign selling, commodities firms

TOKYO, May 25 (Reuters) The Nikkei average fell 1.46 percent on Thursday, erasing much of the previous session's gains, as high-tech firms such Kyocera Corp. lost ground as concern about foreign selling helped dampen sentiment.

Shares of commodity-related companies, such as Mitsubishi Materials Corp., dropped on a sell-off in oil and metals, while Uniden Corp. tumbled more than 17 percent after it reported a sharp decline in profit and forecast further falls ahead.

While foreign net buying orders before the start of trade on Wednesday helped spur a rebound of nearly 2 percent, that buying did not continue. Data released before the start of trade on Thursday showed that foreign brokerages had once again placed more selling orders than buying orders.

That helped weaken sentiment, said Hideyuki Suzuki, manager of investment information at SBI Securities.

''Foreigners returned to net selling Japanese stocks ... the fall in (commodity prices) has also become a negative for the market,'' he said.

The Nikkei slid 232.90 points to 15,674.30 as of 0502 GMT. It rose 1.97 percent on Wednesday, booking its biggest one-day percentage gain in more than two months.

The broader TOPIX index was down 1.40 percent at 1,583.51.

Electronic-components maker Kyocera dropped 3.4 percent to 9,410 yen, becoming the biggest drag on the Nikkei.

Fellow technology firm TDK Corp. lost 3.1 percent to 9,090 yen.

Shares of commodity firms fell after declines in oil, gold and copper prices.

Metal smelter Mitsubishi Materials declined 2.7 percent to 504 yen. Rival Sumitomo Metal Mining fell 3.8 percent to 1,456 yen.

Uniden Corp. slid 17.2 percent to 1,377 yen, making the manufacturer of mobile and cordless phones the biggest percentage loser PL.on the Tokyo exchange's first section.

The company reported a 42 percent decline in group recurring profit on Wednesday as lower prices hurt its core cordless business, and it forecast a further decline in the current year.

Separately, government data released before the start of trade on Thursday showed that net stock selling by foreigners last week hit its highest for a single week since December 2001.

Foreigners sold a net 483.5 billion yen (.29 billion) of Japanese stocks last week, reversing the net buying stance of the previous week, according to the Ministry of Finance data.

REUTERS CS GC1106