* Tech shares decline on profit-taking
* Resource-linked shares down after fall in commodities
* Nikkei drops below five-day moving average
* Benchmark index on track for biggest fall in a month
By Masayuki Kitano
TOKYO, June 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average dropped 2 percent on Tuesday after weak U.S. regional manufacturing data dented optimism about the U.S. economy's health, with tech shares such as Tokyo Electron falling on profit-taking.
Resource-linked shares fell after commodity prices slid the previous day, with trading house Mitsubishi Corp losing 3.9 percent to 1,904 yen and oil and gas explorer Inpex Corp shedding 3.4 percent to 766,000 yen.
Such selling helped push the Nikkei back below 10,000 and under its five-day moving average, which had lent support to the benchmark index since late May.
"This move reflects strengthened concerns about a fall in risk tolerance," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, adding that the scope of declines seen so far suggests that Tokyo shares are being dragged lower by profit-taking.
In addition to the Nikkei, currencies such as the euro and the Australian dollar, as well as oil, have retreated this week, taking a breather after rallying since March.
While the Nikkei may see a drop to around 9,600 this week, its downside is likely to be well-supported, Yamagishi said, adding that a re-emergence of extreme risk aversion seemed unlikely.
The benchmark Nikkei average fell 196.00 points to 9,843.67, pulling further away from an eight-month closing high of 10,135.82 reached on Friday.
The broader Topix dropped 2.6 percent to 922.00.
The Nikkei was on track for its biggest one-day percentage fall in about a month. But it has still rallied 40 percent from a trough hit in early March of just above 7,000.
Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by more than 15 to 1. Trade lightened a bit compared to last week, with 1.3 billion shares changing hands on the Tokyo Exchange's first section compared to last week's morning average of 1.49 billion.
TRACKING U.S.
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.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, fell 2 percent on Monday on a sell-off sparked by a stronger dollar and investor worries that prices may have run ahead of fundamentals.
The New York Fed's survey, by itself, is unlikely to change the investor perception that the pace of economic deterioration in the U.S. economy seems to be moderating, said Yumi Nishimura, deputy general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC.
Investors may be reluctant to sell Tokyo shares too actively ahead of events such as the Bank of Japan's tankan corporate sentiment survey due on July 1, Nishimura said, adding that the tankan is likely to show an improvement in business sentiment.
High-tech shares retreated, with Tokyo Electron falling 3.2 percent to 4,540 yen and Advantest dropping 3.6 percent to 1,700 yen.
Konica Minolta Holdings Inc, fell 6.2 percent to 980 yen after Credit Suisse cut its rating to "underperform" from "neutral", saying the firm's April-June earnings are unlikely to meet market expectations.
The brokerage said the maker of LCD panel film faces price competition as one of its customers has started using a rival's products, and that the company is unlikely to get much of a boost from a rise in utilisation rates at client Taiwanese panel makers. (Reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Joseph Radford)