Share prices closed lower, with players using Wall St's overnight loss, as well as a run-up on the Nikkei index to a more than five year high yesterday, as a cue to take profits, dealers said. They added that investors were also loathe to take fresh positions ahead of the weekend and before the release of some key US data, including Jan nonfarm payrolls and Dec manufacturing, inventories and orders later today The blue-chip Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed down 50.91 points or 0.3 pct at 16,659.64, off a low of 16,567.87. The broader TOPIX index of all first-section shares closed down 3.06 points or 0.2 pct at 1,707.96, off a low of 1,698.46. For the week, the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.65 pct while the TOPIX was up 0.2 pct. Losers led gainers 880 to 701, with 91 issues unchanged. Volume was 2.12 bln shares, down from 2.51 bln yesterday Ryuta Otsuka, a strategist at Toyo Securities said the market was torn between the negative lead from Wall St and some further upbeat corporate results. "I thought there would be a tag of war between strong corporate results and the fall in US stocks. But in the end the fall in US shares prevailed on sentiment dragging down the Japanese market," Otsuka said.