Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Power, Transport and Paper & Pulp sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.53% to hit a new 5-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Kobe Steel, Ltd. (T:5406), which rose 8.73% or 87.0 points to trade at 1083.5 at the close. Honda Motor Co Ltd (T:7267) added 5.20% or 186.0 points to end at 3762.0 and Tosoh Corp. (T:4042) was up 4.95% or 122.0 points to 2586.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nippon Meat Packers, Inc. (T:2282), which lost 11.01% or 360.0 points to trade at 2910.0 in late trade. Yamaha Corp. (T:7951) declined 8.39% or 380.0 points to end at 4150.0 and Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (T:1332) shed 5.50% or 39.0 points to 670.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1846 to 1425 and 233 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 8.14% to 16.34.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for December delivery was up 0.02% or 0.01 to $54.31 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in January rose 0.18% or 0.11 to hit $60.60 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract fell 0.00% or 0.01 to trade at $1277.29 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.10% to 114.06, while EUR/JPY rose 0.09% to 132.80.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 94.54.