TOKYO (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's biggest carmaker, surged the most in almost 21 years in Tokyo after US and European governments agreed to buy stakes in banks helping ease credit market concerns.

Toyota rose 500 yen, its daily trading limit, or 16 percent, to close at 3,720 yen on the Tokyo stock exchange. Honda Motor Co., Japan's second-largest carmaker, jumped 18 percent to 2,485 yen, and Nissan Motor Co., the third-largest, advanced 17 percent to 544 yen.

The US government plans to buy stakes in nine major banks, according to people briefed on the matter, to help rescue frozen credit markets. France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria committed 1.3 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion) to guarantee loans and take stakes in lenders. Japanese carmakers rebounded on the news after posting record declines last week.

"A major sense of relief is spreading in the markets and boosting the auto shares," said Mitsuo Shimizu, a market analyst at Cosmo Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp., maker of the Outlander sport-utility vehicle and Eclipse sports car, rose 26 percent to 140 yen, the largest intraday gain in almost 20 years. Suzuki Motor Corp., Japan's second-largest minicar maker, rose 13 percent to 1,675 yen.

Mazda Motor Corp. rose nine percent to 314 yen after state-run broadcaster NHK reported on October 11 that Ford Motor Co. may sell its controlling stake in the Japanese carmaker. Nikkei English News later that day named trading houses Sumitomo Corp. and Itochu Corp., along with India's Tata Motors Ltd., as possible buyers.

"This puts to rest speculation about when Ford would sell the stake," Shimizu said. "Sumitomo looks to be the likely buyer and would be a stable stakeholder for Mazda."