Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.04% to hit a new 5-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (T:5301), which rose 8.83% or 120.0 points to trade at 1479.0 at the close. Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004) added 5.99% or 138.0 points to end at 2441.0 and Advantest Corp. (T:6857) was up 5.45% or 450.0 points to 8710.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Toho Co., Ltd. (T:9602), which lost 6.73% or 300.0 points to trade at 4155.0 in late trade. Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (T:9532) declined 3.78% or 82.0 points to end at 2089.0 and Kansai Electric Power Co Inc (T:9503) shed 3.74% or 39.5 points to 1017.5.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1992 to 1524 and 222 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 21.48.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.71% or 0.38 to $53.59 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.72% or 0.41 to hit $56.99 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.93% or 17.20 to trade at $1861.40 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.12% to 103.62, while EUR/JPY rose 0.01% to 126.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 89.903.