TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average pared gains briefly on Wednesday after media said Barack Obama had won the U.S. presidential election but still remained up 2.6 percent, buoyed by exporters boosted by a softer yen. U.S. television networks said Obama had captured the White House, defeating Republican John McCain to be the first black elected U.S. President Market players said the benchmark Nikkei appeared to have briefly dipped immediately after the announcement but that that might have been due more to the market's exhausting a major trading factor than anything else. "I don't believe it'll be that much of a factor for stocks -- it really depends how the dollar responds and what sort of policies he'll carry out," said Tomomi Yamashita, a fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management. "His plan to tax higher income earners may dampen incentives a bit and this might limit U.S. competitiveness, and as far as the currency market is concerned, a Republican victory might have been better." The benchmark Nikkei was up 234.76 points at 9,350.36, while the broader Topix had risen 4.6 percent to 952.31. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Sophie Hardach)

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