Nikkei little changed, Sony and chips advance

TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) The Nikkei share average was little changed on Friday with gains in chip-equipment firms such as Tokyo Electron Ltd. were offset by falls in resource-related companies.

Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd. soared 4.7 percent to 1,620 yen after the company said on Thursday it would buy a controlling stake in wine maker Mercian Corp. to expand outside of Japan's shrinking beer market.

Sony Corp. jumped ahead of the U.S. launch of its new video game console, and chip-equipment firms advanced on active global demand for microchip equipment.

But gains were limited as Dowa Holdings Co. Ltd and other resource-related companies were hit by sharp falls in commodity prices. Kenichi Azuma, an equity strategist at Cosmo Securities Co.

Ltd, said the market had been capped by technical selling linked to arbitrage trade, but its fundamentals stayed positive.

''With many companies reporting better earnings, there are no reason for investors to rush to sell stocks,'' he said.

The Nikkei was down 0.19 percent or 29.94 points at 16,133.93 as of 0514 GMT. The broader TOPIX index was down 0.3 percent at 1,576.82.

Sony gained 2.3 percent to 4,820 yen amid growing hype about its new video game console PlayStation 3 which will go on sale in the U.S. market later in the day.

Many fans have lined up to buy a powerful game console equipped with a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player and the Cell microchip.

Faced with stiff competition from Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii, Sony has set a PS3 global shipment target of 6 million by next March.

Chip-equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron rose 3.6 percent to 9,000 yen, becoming the biggest positive contributor to the Nikkei.

Data from a semiconductor industry group on Thursday showed sales of chip-making equipment rose 23.2 percent in September from a year earlier.

Advantest Corp., the world's largest supplier of microchip testers, rose 1.5 percent to 6,200 yen.

Shares of Mercian Corp. were untraded on Friday, flooded with buy orders at 342 yen, up 31 percent from Thursday's close.

Calpis Co. Ltd surged 5.4 percent to 864 yen on speculation that the lactic acid drink maker may be a next take-over target after Kirin's bid for Mercian.

But nonferrous smelter Dowa Holdings lost 4.5 percent to 921 yen after copper prices slipped to a five-month low on rising inventories.

Oil and gas developer INPEX Holdings Inc. fell 2.7 percent to 942,000 yen after U.S. crude oil futures slumped more than 4 percent to their lowest level in almost a year.

REUTERS CS GC1130