Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Precision Instruments, Steel and Electrical/Machinery sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.07%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (TYO:7012), which rose 10.28% or 627.00 points to trade at 6,724.00 at the close. IHI Corp. (TYO:7013) added 6.25% or 514.00 points to end at 8,739.00 and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (TYO:7011) was up 4.05% or 91.50 points to 2,348.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included TOTO Ltd. (TYO:5332), which lost 2.56% or 108.00 points to trade at 4,106.00 in late trade. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (TYO:4506) declined 2.45% or 15.00 points to end at 597.00 and Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TYO:9501) shed 1.95% or 9.90 points to 496.60.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1830 to 1710 and 322 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 6.50% to 21.43.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.79% or 0.54 to $69.13 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.72% or 0.52 to hit $72.71 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.48% or 13.00 to trade at $2,731.40 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.13% to 151.75, while EUR/JPY fell 0.14% to 159.76.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 106.06.