Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Services, Transport and Pharmaceutical Industry sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.62%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were T&D Holdings, Inc. (TYO:8795), which rose 12.80% or 320.50 points to trade at 2,824.00 at the close. Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO:8035) added 6.74% or 1,500.00 points to end at 23,740.00 and Casio Computer Co., Ltd. (TYO:6952) was up 6.64% or 71.00 points to 1,140.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ricoh Co., Ltd. (TYO:7752), which lost 5.08% or 89.00 points to trade at 1,663.00 in late trade. Advantest Corp. (TYO:6857) declined 3.48% or 296.00 points to end at 8,210.00 and Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (TYO:4506) shed 3.32% or 20.00 points to 583.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2218 to 1329 and 294 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 0.38% to 20.77 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was down 0.13% or 0.09 to $68.63 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February fell 0.11% or 0.08 to hit $72.22 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.19% or 4.99 to trade at $2,659.81 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.36% to 151.64, while EUR/JPY rose 0.14% to 159.91.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 106.25.