Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Insurance, Real Estate and Fishery sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (TYO:5711), which rose 9.70% or 254.50 points to trade at 2,878.50 at the close. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TYO:9501) added 6.76% or 54.10 points to end at 854.80 and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (TYO:5713) was up 6.69% or 272.00 points to 4,335.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ebara Corp. (TYO:6361), which lost 4.82% or 655.00 points to trade at 12,935.00 in late trade. Eisai Co., Ltd. (TYO:4523) declined 3.70% or 240.00 points to end at 6,248.00 and Advantest Corp. (TYO:6857) shed 2.35% or 157.00 points to 6,526.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2538 to 1124 and 208 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.00% to 21.52.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.01% or 0.01 to $79.71 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $84.06 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.36% or 7.95 to trade at $2,172.85 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.12% to 147.91, while EUR/JPY rose 0.04% to 161.82.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 102.50.