TOKYO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Nikkei share average ended higher Thursday as investors vigorously scooped up bargains after losses in the previous session and cheered the initial passage of the U.S. debt ceiling bill.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average added 260.13 points, or 0.84 percent, from Wednesday to close the day at 31,148.01.
The broader Topix index, meanwhile, gained 18.66 points, or 0.88 percent, to finish at 2,149.29.
Stocks traded in mostly positive territory throughout the day as investors stepped up purchases of stocks that dropped sharply the previous day.
"Trading houses, which led the decliners yesterday, rebounded especially strong," said Makoto Sengoku, senior equity market analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute.
Advances were further supported by media reports that U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to temporarily suspend the country's debt limit, alleviating concerns about a potential default and prompting dollar buying versus the yen, analysts said.
Moving forward, the market is likely to maintain a wait-and-see stance ahead of further developments on the U.S. debt ceiling issue, the release of U.S. employment data and other economic indicators due out later this week, Sengoku said.
Among individual stocks, technology investor SoftBank Group surged 4.57 percent to become the top gainer on the Nikkei. Air-conditioner maker Daikin Industries jumped 2.86 percent and chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron gained 1.21 percent.
Toyota Motor rose 1.81 percent after the automaker said it would invest an additional 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in its new U.S. battery plant in North Carolina in an effort to tap rising demand for electric vehicles.
On the Prime section, gainers outnumbered decliners 948 to 805 while 82 issues were unchanged. Volume shrank to 1,384 million shares from Wednesday's 2,586 million shares. ■