TOKYO, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed marginally higher on Monday as investor sentiment was buoyed by U.S. President Donald Trump signing into law a 900-billion-U.S. dollar COVID-19 relief package.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 197.42 points, or 0.74 percent, from Friday to close the day at 26,854.03, marking the highest closing level since April 17, 1991.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, added 9.63 points, or 0.54 percent, to finish at 1,788.04.
Investors cheered the delayed signing of the relief and spending package bill by Trump as well as a partial government shutdown being averted, local brokers said.
The much-delayed bill had initially been denounced by Trump who had slammed it as being "wasteful spending" with Trump calling for higher payments to be given to people wiped out by the pandemic, they added.
After months of negotiation, the relief package was approved by Congress and is part of a 2.3-trillion-U.S. dollar stimulus package that allocates 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars for normal federal spending, they said.
"Investors welcomed that the chaos of a partial government shutdown was avoided," Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co., was quoted as saying.
Ichikawa also said shares' advance was limited as the market had priced in the stimulus package although the signing was delayed.
Other analysts said that the new strain of COVID-19 rattled the market, despite the good news about the U.S. stimulus bill.
"Investors bought back shares, welcoming Trump's tweets on the COVID relief bill," Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, was quoted as saying.
"But players remained cautious about the impact of rising coronavirus infections, including Japan's first cases of the new strain, on the economy," Horiuchi said.
The Japanese government on Monday suspended new entries into Japan by non-resident foreign nationals arriving from most of the world through the end of January.
The move came after the country's first cases of a coronavirus variant was confirmed late last week, with more cases of people entering Japan carrying the highly infectious virus variant, first detected in Britain, with them, according to media reports.
"The Nikkei is expected to be confined in a range between 26,500 and 27,000," Ichikawa said.
By the close of play, electric appliance, land transportation, and electric power and gas issues comprised those that gained the most.
Sony added 2.3 percent, while Panasonic rose 1.0 percent. Fujitsu, meanwhile, ended the day 1.5 percent higher.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries jumped almost 5 percent, following a report that the firm plans to build a zero-carbon steel plant in Austria that's powered by hydrogen.
Airlines retreated following the Japanese government suspending new entries into the country by non-resident foreign nationals arriving from most of the world through the end of January, with ANA Holdings dropping 1.4 percent, while Japan Airlines lost 2.1 percent.
Issues that fell outpaced those that rose by 1,377 to 724 on the First Section, while 86 ended the day unchanged.
On the main section on Monday, 1,009.14 million shares changed hands, rising from Friday's volume of 694.80 million shares.
The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 1,964.2 billion yen (18.96 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem
