Japan stocks edge down but tech stocks support

TOKYO, Nov 28 (Reuters) Japanese stocks edged lower on Wednesday, weighed down by automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp on lingering currency concerns, with the dollar still on track to log its biggest one-month fall against the yen since early 2000.

But high-tech blue chips such as Sony Corp supported the market after a Wall Street rise on Abu Dhabi's purchase of a stake in Citigroup.

Takahiko Murai, general manager of equities at Nozomi Securities, said the fact that the market had been oversold represented a buying opportunity to some investors.

''Stocks that had been sold despite strong fundamentals are being bought back,'' he said.

''It's also true that Citi's news signifies a step forward in solving the (U.S. subprime) problems, and extreme pessimism has receded.'' But Murai said the Tokyo market could easily change direction depending on what news comes in later in the day as there are no strong domestic factors to trade on.

At 0130 GMT, the benchmark Nikkei was down 0.5 percent or 82.04 points at 15,140.81.

The broader TOPIX index was down 0.3 percent at 1,475.03.

The dollar edged down to 108.50 yen after jumping 1.5 percent on Tuesday, its second biggest one-day surge this year.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday after Abu Dhabi's .5 billion purchase of a stake in Citigroup spurred a rebound in financial stocks.

But Japanese financial peers had already priced in the news during the previous session, Murai said.

Automakers lost ground, with Toyota down 1.5 percent at 6,010 yen and Honda Motor Co Ltd lost 1.9 percent to 3,590 yen.

Some high-tech firms helped support the market, though, with Sony rising 1.9 percent to 5,860 yen ahead of the year-end shopping season.

Reuters AK VP0718