* Nikkei falls 2.9 pct, worst day in over 2 months
* Resource shares battered as commodities extend losses
* Recovery worry, yen's gains pressure exporters * Technical factors darken, Nikkei below 5-day moving average
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, June 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average lost 2.9 percent on Tuesday for its worst one-day percentage loss in more than two months, with shares sold across the board amid investor worry about economic recovery as the yen advanced.
Mitsubishi Corp and other resource shares took a hit as oil and metals prices extended losses, while property stocks slid on profit-taking after rallying for the past month.
The benchmark Nikkei fell below the hard-won 10,000 line, with some analysts saying technical factors were turning dark and the day's fall could turn out to be more than just a simple adjustment following recent sharp gains.
"The atmosphere is not particularly good, and there's a lot more pressure from outside factors, such as Asian share markets falling and the yen's advance," said Hiroaki Osakabe, a fund manager at Chibagin Asset Management.
The dollar was fetching 96.26 yen, down 1.6 percent, while the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan fell 1.8 percent.
The Nikkei has fallen below an uptrend line from the March 10 bear market low as well as its five-day moving average. Should it keep falling, its next target could be a bit below 9,600, which is where the 25-day moving average currently comes in.
"Also, if we go by previous patterns, the Nikkei has tended to hit a ceiling in June from rises during the several previous months before heading downwards, and this may be what's happening now," Osakabe said.
Others disagreed, saying a bit of adjustment is only natural given the market's recent rally. The Nikkei has risen roughly 40 percent since its March low, about 11 percent of that since the start of May.
The benchmark Nikkei lost 286.79 points to 9,752.88, pulling further away from an eight-month closing high of 10,135.82 reached on Friday, in its biggest one-day percentage fall since March 30. The broader Topix dropped 3.4 percent to 914.76.
"The selling is due to a combination of overheating and a sense of achievement after hitting 10,000," said Takashi Ushio, head of the investment strategy division at Marusan Securities.
"Yesterday's New York Fed index was basically just taken as a signal to sell, but it really wasn't that important. We won't see a major change in the trend unless there's a new financial problem or an indicator that's unexpectedly bad."
ANY EXCUSE TO SELL
Tokyo shares tracked the previous day's decline in U.S. equities, which marked their worst slide in a month on Monday after the New York Fed's Empire State general business conditions index showed the factory sector shrank at a much more severe rate in June than the previous month. Oil fell for the third straight trading day towards $70 per barrel and Shanghai copper fell for a fourth day after losses on Monday.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, fell 2 percent on Monday in a sell-off sparked by a stronger dollar and investor worries that prices may have run ahead of fundamentals.
Mitsubishi, Japan's largest trading house, lost 5.1 percent to 1,881 yen and fellow trader Mitsui & Co tumbled 5.5 percent to 1,192 yen. Itochu Corp shed 6 percent to 687 yen and Marubeni Corp lost 4.2 percent to 455 yen.
Mitsui Fudosan, Japan's biggest real estate developer, and other property firms slid after a rally that saw the real estate subindex surge to a seven-month high the previous day.
Mitsui Fudosan sank 6.4 percent to 1,644 yen and second-ranked Mitsubishi Estate lost 6.6 percent to 1,566 yen. The real estate subindex fell 6.1 percent.
"It is possible that they could face selling based on a perception that the recovery in economic sentiment is not of the sort that justifies buying real estate shares," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager for Ichiyoshi Investment Management. "But for today I think it's mostly profit-taking."
Exporters slid as well amid the growing worry about a recovery.
Honda Motor Co fell 4.1 percent to 2,680 yen, Toyota Motor Corp lost 3.4 percent to 3,700 yen and Canon Inc fell 2.7 percent to 3,230 yen.
Trading volume picked up, with 2.6 billion shares changing hands on the Tokyo Exchange's first section compared to last week's average of 2.5 billion.
Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by more than 17 to 1. (Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Michael Watson)