Tokyo stocks fell slightly Wednesday morning after a mixed performance on Wall Street, with support from some resource shares on record-high gold prices, while investors await the results of a two-day U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 6.67 points, or 0.07 percent, to 9,796.28 from Monday's three-week closing low. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 1.67 points, or 0.19 percent, to 878.87.

Decliners were led by metal product, food and precision machinery issues. Major gainers included the nonferrous metal, oil and coal product, and consumer finance sectors.

"The downside is limited as luckily there wasn't much volatility in U.S. stocks while Japanese markets were closed (Tuesday) for a national holiday," said Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. equity manager Hiroichi Nishi.

Buying helped lift the Nikkei briefly into positive territory as some investors felt stocks were oversold given the benchmark index's more than 5 percent decline over the week through Monday, brokers said.

Resource-related stocks, such as nonferrous metal issues, advanced after gold futures surged to record highs Tuesday in New York. Sumitomo Metal Mining climbed 57 yen, or almost 4 percent, to 1,496 yen, and Asahi Holdings, a precious metal recycling firm, jumped over 4 percent.

"But on the whole, investors are finding it difficult to make aggressive moves as they want to first see Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's statement later today on the FOMC's assessment of the U.S. economic outlook, as well as upcoming U.S. jobs figures," Nishi said.

Market attention is also focused on policy meetings of the Bank of England and European Central Bank, respectively, over the next two days as investors watch for monetary policy changes, brokers said.

On the First Section, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 977 to 518, with 181 others ending the morning unchanged.

Bank shares slumped as worries about stricter capital requirements linger. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the morning value leader, lost 4 yen, or almost 1 percent, to 485 yen, and volume leader Mizuho Financial Group fell 1 yen, or about half a percent, to 182 yen.

Semiconductor shares tracked their U.S. peers' weakness, with Tokyo Electron down 230 yen, or over 4 percent, to 4,880 yen.

Bucking the trend, Fast Retailing rose 470 yen, or over 3 percent, to 15,590 yen on a surge in October sales at its Uniqlo casual clothing stores.

Trading was thin, with volume on the main section coming to 775.05 million shares, down from Monday morning's 929.03 million.

The TSE's Second Section index was down 0.99 point, or 0.05 percent, to 2,159.47 on a volume of 71.71 million shares. On the Osaka Securities Exchange, the near-term December Nikkei 225 index futures contract was down 30 points to 9,800.