Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Banking, Paper & Pulp and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 1.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Sharp Corp. (T:6753), which rose 3.85% or 5.0 points to trade at 135.0 at the close. Olympus Corp. (T:7733) added 2.38% or 100.0 points to end at 4300.0 and Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. (T:4061) was up 1.32% or 6.0 points to 461.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included DOWA Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:5714), which lost 6.67% or 45.0 points to trade at 630.0 in late trade. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (T:2802) declined 6.13% or 168.0 points to end at 2574.0 and Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (T:6770) shed 5.94% or 123.0 points to 1946.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1400 to 446 and 60 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 1.22% to 23.48.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 0.89% or 0.34 to $38.62 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June rose 0.63% or 0.25 to hit $40.10 a barrel, while the June Gold contract rose 0.19% or 2.40 to trade at $1239.90 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.34% to 112.32, while EUR/JPY fell 0.26% to 126.95.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.14% at 95.04.