Nikkei cuts gains after charging above 16,000 for first time in six years

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average eked out modest gains on Tuesday, retreating from an early rally to above 16,000 for the first time in six years as investors took profits, though it is still on track for its best annual rise since 1972.

The Nikkei finished up 0.1 percent at 15,889.33, posting its highest closing level in six years for the third session in a row. Earlier, it hit an intraday day high of 16,029.65, its best level since December 2007.

Credit Suisse said in a note late last week that if the Nikkei charged above 16,125, it would break its secular long-term downtrend line from 1996.

Powered by Tokyo's massive fiscal and monetary stimulus to revive the world's third-largest economy, the benchmark is up 53 percent this year.

SoftBank Corp dropped 1.2 percent on Tuesday and was the top-weighted loser in the Nikkei. Bloomberg cited sources as saying that SoftBank's Chief Executive Masayoshi Son held talks with at least five banks to finance a possible bid by 80 percent-held Sprint Corp to buy a majority stake in T-Mobile US Inc in 2014.

The broader Topix index closed down 0.3 percent at 1,257.55, with 2.59 billion shares changing hands, up from last week's daily average of 2.43 billion shares.

(Reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)