* Profit-taking, futures selling weigh - market players
* Nikkei stays above 9,800; next target seen around 10,000
By Aiko Hayashi
TOKYO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average inched lower on Tuesday, losing steam after earlier hitting a five-month high, but exporter shares rose on a weaker yen and lent support to the overall market.
The benchmark Nikkei managed to stay above 9,800, where it had faced resistance. A decisive break above that level will likely open the way to a climb towards 10,000, traders say. The next target is then expected to be around its June high of 10,251.90.
"Some investors likely bought stocks on corrective moves in the yen's strength, but that's not enough to keep pushing the market higher," said Kazutaka Oshima, president of Rakuten Investment Management.
"Corporate earnings have been solid so far, but outlooks are looking weak. Other stocks markets are also pausing and, at this point, investors find it hard to lift the Nikkei beyond 10,000 just because Japanese stocks have been lagging behind."
By the midmorning, the benchmark Nikkei was down 0.2 percent at 9,812.23, with market players saying profit-taking and large-lot selling of futures were weighing on the market.
It earlier climbed as high as 9,908.30, its highest since June 24.
The broader Topix fell 0.4 percent to 847.79.
So far this year, the Nikkei is down about 7 percent. By contrast, the Dow Jones industrial average has gained more than 7 percent, while the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan has added about 12 percent during the same period.
The dollar touched a near 6-week high of 83.28 yen on trading platform EBS, boosted by a surge in U.S. Treasury yields. In early Asia trade, the greenback traded at 83.16 yen.
Many Japanese companies have set their dollar/yen assumption rates for the fiscal year to March around 80-90 yen.
Gains in exporter shares helped support the market. Canon Inc rose 0.8 percent to 3,985 yen and Tokyo Electron Ltd gained 0.6 percent to 5,100 yen.
But energy-linked shares slipped as U.S. crude futures fell after the dollar extended its recent gains.
Inpex Corp, Japan's top oil explorer, declined 2.3 percent to 423,000 yen. (Editing by Chris Gallagher)