* Profit-taking after Nikkei gained 2 pct on Thursday
* Solid technical support seen at 25-day MA of 9,458
By Chikafumi Hodo
TOKYO, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average fell 0.7 percent on Friday, hurt by broad profit-taking after gaining sharply a day earlier and as financial stocks tracked their Wall Street peers lower on worries about a widening U.S. foreclosure crisis.
Continued strength in the yen, which hit a new 15-year high on Thursday, continued to put pressure on exporters.
"Market players are concentrating on adjusting positions after posting strong gains yesterday," said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.
"Yesterday's big rise was somewhat artificial as buying in the futures market drove up the Nikkei. Today we are watching whether the market can regain its strength again."
Traders said Thursday's gains were partly due to active buying by one European institution, which bought Nikkei futures possibly on behalf of overseas commodity trading advisers (CTAs) and hedge funds who were doing short-term trades.
The benchmark Nikkei finished the morning session down 68.80 points at 9,514.71, while the broader Topix fell 1 percent to 828.64.
On Thursday, the Nikkei rose 1.9 percent, its best daily performance in a month, buoyed by a jump in resource stocks as dollar weakness fuelled a climb in commodity prices.
Technical indicators showed the Nikkei has strong support at its 25-day moving average, now at 9,458, while its next upward targets are its recent peaks around 9,700, marked this month, and 9,800, hit in July.
Analysts said that while U.S. foreclosure worries were undermining sentiment on Friday, Japanese banks were unlikely to be directly affected and the impact should be limited.
Mizuho Financial Group dropped 4.1 percent to 117 yen and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 2.3 percent to 387 yen. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shed 1.9 percent to 2,402 yen.
The dollar stood at 81.30 yen in Asian trade after it dropped to a 15-year low of 80.88 yen on EBS on Thursday despite wariness about Japanese intervention, and looked set to challenge its record low of 79.75 hit in April 1995.
Among exporters, Canon Inc slipped 1.4 percent to 3,855 yen and Sony Corp fell 1.4 percent to 2,604 yen. (Editing by Edwina Gibbs)