Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Taiheiyo Cement Corp. (T:5233), which rose 5.29% or 175.0 points to trade at 3485.0 at the close. JFE Holdings, Inc. (T:5411) added 5.24% or 72.0 points to end at 1447.0 and Minebea Mitsumi Inc (T:6479) was up 4.84% or 103.0 points to 2233.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Rakuten Inc (T:4755), which lost 2.25% or 21.0 points to trade at 913.0 in late trade. Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (T:1332) declined 1.56% or 10.0 points to end at 632.0 and NTT Docomo, Inc. (T:9437) shed 1.33% or 40.0 points to 2974.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2012 to 1511 and 246 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 16.45 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was down 0.26% or 0.15 to $58.28 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February fell 0.11% or 0.07 to hit $62.93 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.05% or 0.75 to trade at $1480.95 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.01% to 108.86, while EUR/JPY rose 0.09% to 120.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 97.500.