TOKYO, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The benchmark Nikkei stock index ended at a six-and-a-half month high on Thursday, with figures back to levels seen before the pandemic, as a solid lead from Wall Street overnight lifted sentiment along with expectations that Japan's current monetary policy will be continued after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's resignation.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 218.38 points, or 0.94 percent, from Wednesday to close the day at 23,465.53, marking its highest closing level since Feb. 21.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, added 7.84 points, or 0.48 percent, to finish at 1,631.24.
Trading got off to a bright start following another risk-on rally overnight on Wall Street, local brokers said.
They added that U.S. shares got a boost, in part, by companies developing vaccines possibly being allowed to have them made available earlier if clinical trials produce "overwhelming results."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official in the United States, said a COVID-19 vaccine could be available earlier than expected if ongoing clinical trials produce overwhelmingly positive results.
Fauci said trials that are set to be concluded by the end of the year could be ended weeks early if decided so by an independent board.
Strategists said that advancements in ongoing multinational COVID-19 vaccine developments fed into broader hopes for the global economic recovery from the pandemic, with Fauci's remarks lifting sentiment.
Both domestic and foreign investors also took heart from the likelihood Japan's monetary policy would not be changed under Japan's next leader following Abe's resignation.
Japan's top government spokesperson Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who announced his candidacy Wednesday for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership race, said if elected he would continue the prime minster's "Abenomics" economic policy mix, strategists here highlighted.
"A sense of relief prevailed in the market after all the candidates, including Suga, said they will not change current monetary policy," Makoto Sengoku, a market analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, was quoted as saying.
After an early round of buying, however, investors took their foot off the gas, with some hitting the sidelines ahead of key U.S. non-manufacturing ISM data and weekly jobless claims set to be released later in the day, brokers here said.
They added some investors were seeking more solid economic and corporate-based trading cues looking ahead, while others were cautious about an overheating market.
"The Nikkei average shot above the 23,500 level in morning trade for the first time in six and a half months, as investors cheered rallies of U.S. shares," Okasan Online Securities was quoted as saying.
"But gains seen in other Asian markets encouraged investors and lifted the Nikkei into a high range, although some players were sensing caution about overheating," Okasan added.
Maki Sawada, vice president of the investment research and investor services department at Nomura Securities Co., meanwhile, said investors were looking for confirmation of corporations' recovery from the pandemic.
"The market lacked momentum to retake the 24,000 yen line without confirmation businesses have seen a recovery in the July-September quarter," Sawada said.
By the close of play, securities house, metal product and chemical-linked issues comprised those that gained the most.
Notable gainers also included precision parts makers, including Murata Manufacturing who ended 1.1 percent higher, with chip-linked issues also finding favor owing to their U.S. peers' overnight climb.
Advantest added 1.4 percent, Shin-Etsu Chemical jumped 3.7 percent, while Screen Holdings ended the day 4.6 percent higher.
Game console and software maker Nintendo climbed 1.6 percent, owing to continued brisk sales of its Switch consoles and popular game titles such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Among automakers accelerating, Toyota closed the day 0.3 percent higher.
Issues that rose outpaced those that fell by 1,168 to 898 on the First Section, while 105 ended the day unchanged.
On the main section on Thursday, 1.021.67 million shares changed hands, rising from Wednesday's volume of 976.48 million shares.
The turnover on the penultimate trading day of the week came to 1.936 trillion yen (18.220 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem
