Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Food, Trading and Textile sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.50%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (T:7211), which rose 11.86% or 73.0 points to trade at 688.5 at the close. NTN Corp. (T:6472) added 7.72% or 37.0 points to end at 516.0 and Hino Motors, Ltd. (T:7205) was up 7.53% or 90.0 points to 1285.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Konica Minolta, Inc. (T:4902), which lost 8.36% or 98.0 points to trade at 1074.0 in late trade. Ricoh Co., Ltd. (T:7752) declined 7.63% or 77.0 points to end at 932.0 and Meidensha Corp. (T:6508) shed 7.53% or 29.0 points to 356.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1723 to 1273 and 348 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 9.67% to 20.75.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.13% or 0.07 to $52.74 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.23% or 0.13 to hit $55.45 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.18% or 2.15 to trade at $1209.25 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.45% to 113.31, while EUR/JPY rose 0.29% to 122.13.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 99.77.