1st LD Writethru: Tokyo shares closed higher tracking Wall Street gains

TOKYO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo shares closed higher Friday tracking Wall Street gains overnight despite uncertainties over the outlook of the U.S. tax reform plans.

Shares opened sharply higher in the morning tracking the gains of U.S. shares overnight on expectations of the Senate passage of the Republicans' tax reform bill.

But the stocks changed course later following media reports that the U.S. Senate delayed voting on its tax reform plan. They recovered in the afternoon as market players sought bargains.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 94.07 points, or 0.41 percent, from Thursday at 22,819.03.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange finished 4.45 points, or 0.25 percent, higher at 1,796.53.

Among all shares listed on the First Section, advancing issues outnumbered decliners 1,002 to 940, with 97 ending the day unchanged.

Gainers were led by oil and coal product, mining and machinery issues, while decliners were led by nonferrous metal, farming issues.

On the main section, 1,627.10 million shares changed hands, falling from Thursday's volume of 2,445.57 million shares.

The day's turnover was around 3,017.9 billion yen (26.80 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem