TOKYO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Japanese technology investor

SoftBank Group ( SFTBF ) said on Wednesday it plans to buy back a

hefty $3.4 billion in shares, answering in part calls from

Elliott Management and other investors to bolster its stock

price.

Masayoshi Son's globe-spanning tech giant has been under

pressure to buy back shares given that its market capitalisation

trades at a large discount to the combined value of its assets.

SoftBank said that over the next year it would buy back up

to 6.8% of its own shares, worth as much as 500 billion yen.

Elliott has pressured SoftBank for a $15 billion share

buyback programme, according to a person familiar with the

matter in June. The U.S activist investor rebuilt a stake worth

more than $2 billion, the person added.

SoftBank also posted a narrower quarterly net loss of 174.3

billion yen compared with a loss of 477.6 billion in the same

period a year earlier. That was based on its reported net income

attributable to shareholders.

On a separate measure, net income, it swung to a profit of

10.5 billion yen for the period.

The company, which had $26 billion of cash on hand as of the

end of March, has been rebuilding its finances after the failure

of high-flying office-sharing startup WeWork and after some of

its tech firms it is invested in through its Vision Funds fell

out of favour among investors.

The results come amid much market turmoil, particularly for

large-cap Japanese stocks and major tech companies which have

been hurt by a massive unwinding of yen carry trades and U.S.

recession fears. SoftBank's shares slumped almost 20% on Monday

but have since recovered.

They finished up 5.2% on Wednesday before the results.

($1 = 147.0100 yen)