TOKYO, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Following Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's announcement of giving up re-election last week, Tokyo stocks finished higher Monday with both indexes performing strongly, as a new stimulus package was expected by the market from contenders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership race.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average finished 531.78 points, or 1.83 percent, higher at 29,659.89, ending at its highest level since April 19.

The Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended 25.77 points, or 1.28 percent, higher from Friday at 2,041.22. Beating the 30-year high created last week, the index reached its highest close since Aug. 16, 1990, when the Japanese economy was experiencing an asset-inflated bubble.

Trading volume on the main section decreased to 1,176.83 million shares from Friday's 1,243.10 million shares.

Tokyo stocks continued the upward trend on Monday, rising for the sixth consecutive trading day. The Nikkei index in total increased more than 7 percent from the beginning of last week, while the Topix rose about 6 percent.

After Suga announced on Friday that he would not run in the LDP's leadership election on Sept. 29 because he wanted to focus on anti-COVID-19 measures, market sentiment was fueled by the current dissatisfaction with Suga's policies and an expectation of better measures over the COVID-19 pandemic from his contenders, brokers said.

Shingo Ide, the chief equity strategist at NLI Research Institute, said, "The market was lifted by expectations of a new economic relief policy and a change in Japan, such as in its administration and diplomacy if Mr. Taro Kono is elected."

Taro Kono, the vaccination minister, is the most popular figure among the post-Suga LDP hopefuls, according to some media polls.

"The upbeat momentum triggered by the positive surprise of Mr. Suga announcing he will step down has continued and prompted buying," said Toshikazu Horiuchi, an equity strategist at IwaiCosmo Securities Co., adding "an election is a buying catalyst among market anomalies."

Horiuchi said that fewer daily COVID-19 infections confirmed in Japan in recent days and progress in vaccine rollouts both lifted the market as well.

By the close of play, marine transportation, securities house, and machinery shares headed the increase. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones 1,554 to 532 on the First Section, while 102 closed unchanged.

With less pricing pressure expected from a new government leader, major mobile phone carriers of Japan continued rising from late last week in response to Suga's resign. Among them, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone increased 3.7 percent, KDDI advanced 3.6 percent, and SoftBank ended up 1.0 percent. Enditem

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