Japan stocks slip on high-techs, US economy worry

(Adds details, stocks)

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks fell on Friday as high-tech shares such as Kyocera (6971.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) slipped, with renewed worries about the U.S. economy and possible fallout from the credit crisis also weighing on the market. The slide, which came a day after the Nikkei average scored its greatest one-day percentage gain in six years, was also fed by financial firms such as Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Japan's No.2 bank, and insurers.

The market had taken its cue from Wall Street, which slid after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke painted a sombre picture of a U.S. economy facing risks of both slow growth and inflation in testimony to Congress. [ID:nN14460360]

The fall picked up steam after Moody's downgraded bond insurer FGIC, raising the possibility of more asset writedowns by banks and funds holding securities and adding to credit worries already stoked after Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) revealed tens of billions of dollars in risky debt exposure [ID:nL14686448].

"Although both the U.S. and Japan had surprisingly strong indicators out this week, if you look at the actual contents they weren't really that good," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Shinko Securities.

"Add in Bernanke, the ratings cut and UBS, and it's clear that the subprime worries are still there."

But other participants said the market was shrugging off these factors in favour of movements pegged to individual sectors. "Bernanke's comments were in some ways what the market had expected, and FGIC had already been downgraded by ratings agencies such as Fitch so that, too, was somewhat factored in," said Yumi Nishimura, manager at the investment advisory section of Daiwa Securities SMBC. "If it had been Ambac or MBIA that got downgraded, the negative response probably would have been a lot worse."

The benchmark Nikkei .N225 was down 1.5 percent at 13,423.93 by midsession after earlier falling nearly 2 percent. The broader TOPIX index was down 0.9 percent at 1,321.10.