TOKYO, Sep 21 Japanese stocks are likely to open lower on Friday with Toyota Motor Corp a

TOKYO, Sep 21 (Reuters) Japanese stocks are likely to open lower on Friday with Toyota Motor Corp and other exporters sold on a fall on Wall Street and the yen's gain against the dollar.

Among stocks expected to grab the market's attention are Sharp Corp and Pioneer Corp.

The Japanese consumer electronics makers said on Thursday Sharp will acquire a 14.3 percent stake in Pioneer to form an alliance to jointly develop the next-generation DVD players, car electronics and displays.

''Given a lack of particular trading leads, the Tokyo market is likely to move lower following a fall in Wall Street and the yen's gain against the dollar,'' said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Shinko Securities.

''Stocks are likely to be sold across the board ahead of the three-day weekend, but energy and other natural resources shares, including trading houses, may gain.

Oil surged to a record $84 a barrel on Thursday as companies shut Gulf of Mexico output on forecasts a tropical depression churning through the region would become a storm. Gold prices were also high, hitting a 28-year high on Thursday .

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday as a weakened dollar and a surge in oil prices kindled fresh concerns about inflation, snuffing out a two-day rally that followed the Federal Reserve's deep interest cut.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.35 percent, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index fell 0.67 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.46 percent.

Analysts predict Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average will move between 16,100 and 16,500 on Friday after gaining 0.2 percent in Thursday's session to 16,413.79.

Nikkei futures traded in Chicago finished at 16,215 on Thursday, 165 points lower than the Osaka close, indicating a lower opening in Tokyo.

The dollar was around 114.60 yen against 114.30 yen in late New York trade.

STOCKS TO WATCH -- Sharp Corp, Pioneer Corp Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp will buy about $357 million worth of new shares from Pioneer Corp and work with its struggling rival in development of DVD players, car electronics and displays.

Pioneer said it would issue 30 million shares to Sharp, raising 41.4 billion yen ($357.2 million) and making Sharp its top shareholder with a stake of 14.3 percent. Sharp, in turn, will allot 10 million of its existing shares to Pioneer for 19.7 billion yen.

-- Mitsui Fudosan Co, Imperial Hotel Ltd Mitsui Fudosan is in the final stages of talks to acquire a 33 percent stake in Imperial Hotel Ltd from transit services provider Kokusai Kogyo Co for about 90 billion yen, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

-- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos MUFG, Japan's biggest bank, said on Thursday it will buy about $1 billion worth of shares from Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos to bolster the ailing credit card unit Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos, which is about two-thirds owned by MUFG, said it now expects to post a group net loss of 111.8 billion yen for the year to March 2008 due to restructuring costs and increased reserves for interest repayments.

-- Sony Corp Sony Corp's game unit said it was fairly confident of doubling shipments of PlayStation 3 game consoles to 11 million in the year to March, and may buy more software firms to boost demand for its console.

Sony also said on Thursday it would postpone the launch of the ''Home'' virtual community service for its PlayStation 3 game console to early next year.

-- Bic Camera Inc, Best Denki Co Electronics retailer Bic Camera said on Thursday it will spend some 5.7 billion yen to become rival Best Denki Co. top shareholder with a 9.9 percent stake in terms of voting rights.

The move comes as Yamada Denki Co Ltd, which is the industry's top player in terms of sales, raised its stake in Best Denki to 6.47 percent in recent months.

-- Elpida Memory Inc Elpida is expected to post a group operating profit of slightly less than 10 billion yen for the six months to Sept. 30, down about 60 percent year-on-year due to falling prices of DRAM chips, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

REUTERS AK BST0528