Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Manufacturing, Chemical and Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.14%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Yamaha Corp. (T:7951), which rose 12.67% or 615.0 points to trade at 5470.0 at the close. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (T:9107) added 9.23% or 131.0 points to end at 1551.0 and Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. (T:4151) was up 5.87% or 124.0 points to 2235.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NTT Data Corp. (T:9613), which lost 9.17% or 123.0 points to trade at 1218.0 in late trade. Nichirei Corp. (T:2871) declined 7.52% or 223.0 points to end at 2743.0 and Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd. (T:5214) shed 5.87% or 176.0 points to 2824.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1763 to 1704 and 211 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.95% to 16.55 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.45% or 0.24 to $53.42 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.45% or 0.28 to hit $61.70 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.01% or 0.15 to trade at $1319.35 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.29% to 109.64, while EUR/JPY fell 0.48% to 124.89.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 95.922.