Nikkei down as worry on China spurs profit-taking

TOKYO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei posted its biggest weekly loss in 3 months, dropping 1.6 percent on Friday, as lower commodities prices weighed on energy-related stocks, spurring profit-taking after a recent rally.

China reported its economy grew 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter, even faster than expected, while inflation barely slowed. That raised fears the government will tighten monetary policy to choke off excessive demand and sent prices of oil, copper and gold sharply lower. [ID:nN20126733]

Market players said the sell-off in commodities on worries over China was a perfect excuse to snap up profits, after the market had gained around 13 percent since the start of November on a rally triggered by foreign funds aggressively adding laggard Tokyo stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei ended the day down 1.6 percent at 10,274.52. The broader Topix index <.TOPX> was 1.8 percent lower. (Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Joseph Radford)