Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gas & Water, Power and Chemical sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nichirei Corp. (T:2871), which rose 3.99% or 110.0 points to trade at 2864.0 at the close. Familymart Ltd (T:8028) added 3.53% or 300.0 points to end at 8810.0 and Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. (T:2502) was up 3.51% or 193.0 points to 5690.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (T:4502), which lost 7.45% or 412.0 points to trade at 5120.0 in late trade. Panasonic Corp (T:6752) declined 4.10% or 64.3 points to end at 1503.0 and Rakuten Inc (T:4755) shed 2.58% or 23.1 points to 872.8.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2219 to 1139 and 182 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 5.65% to 24.11.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 0.28% or 0.18 to $64.56 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June fell 0.06% or 0.04 to hit $68.72 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.02% or 0.20 to trade at $1324.00 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.27% to 106.55, while EUR/JPY fell 0.27% to 131.13.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 89.75.