TOKYO, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) - The benchmark Nikkei stock index snapped a four-day winning streak Monday, as earlier gains made on the back of U.S. shares rallying late last week were lost as investors switched to profit-taking to lock in gains.

File photo: VCG

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 60.03 points, or 0.26 percent, from Friday to close the day at 23,331.84.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, dropped 1.26 points, or 0.07 percent, to finish at 1,704.03.

Local brokers said the market mood was buoyed by U.S. shares rallying late last week, with issues here widely exposed to external demand finding favor in early trade.

They added that investor sentiment was bolstered by record closes on Wall Street last week, with investors here also motivated by hopes for the outlook of key International trade talks.

Market strategists indicated that buying soon gave way to profit-taking, however, as investors were keen to secure gains made recently, prompted by the Nikkei's 13-month closing high on Friday.

"After rallies last week that kept Nikkei above 23,000, market participants have grown wary of chasing the upside too aggressively," Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at the NLI Research Institute, was quoted as saying.

Machinery-inked issues came under pressure, following a government report showing a 2.9-percent decline in September orders from a month earlier.

This led to the Cabinet Office downgrading its assessment for the the first time since December, stating that machinery orders were showing "signs of stalling in their recovery."

Hitachi Construction Machinery lost 1.3 percent, while Okuma fell 2.1 percent. TDK, meanwhile, closed the day 1.2 percent lower.

By the close of play, construction, oil and coal product, and non-ferrous metal-linked issues comprised those that declined the most, and issues that advanced outpaced those that declined by 1,294 to 787 on the First Section, while 72 ended the day unchanged.

On the main section on Monday, 1,241.28 million shares changed hands, dropping from Friday's volume of 1,626.80 million shares.

The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 2,181.4 billion yen (20.01 billion U.S. dollars).