Nikkei retreats from six-year closing high

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average posted its biggest one-day fall in six weeks on Wednesday, a day after hitting a six-year closing high as investors pocketed gains ahead of the U.S. November jobs report due later this week.

Wednesday's decline came as the yen bounced off a six-month low versus the dollar and a four-year trough against the euro, with investors trimming their bearish bets on the Japanese currency before Friday's nonfarm payrolls report.

The November jobs report was likely to offer further clues as to when the Federal Reserve will start dialling back its stimulus.

The Nikkei ended down 2.2 percent at 15,407.94, hitting its lowest closing level in two weeks. On Tuesday, the benchmark logged its highest close since December 2007.

Still, the Nikkei is up 48 percent so far this year, spurred by Japan's massive fiscal and monetary stimulus. If the gains were to hold for the rest of the year, it would be the Nikkei's best yearly performance since 1972.

The broader Topix index closed 1.7 percent lower at 1,240.99 on Wednesday, with 2.54 billion shares changing hands, down from Tuesday's one-week high of 2.69 billion shares.

(Reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by Eric Meijer)