Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Steel, Retail and Paper & Pulp sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.56% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Okuma Corp. (TYO:6103), which rose 5.42% or 300.00 points to trade at 5,840.00 at the close. Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (TYO:4568) added 5.13% or 218.00 points to end at 4,468.00 and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (TYO:8031) was up 4.13% or 166.00 points to 4,182.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Otsuka Holdings Ltd (TYO:4578), which lost 4.25% or 175.00 points to trade at 3,943.00 in late trade. T&D Holdings, Inc. (TYO:8795) declined 0.93% or 19.00 points to end at 2,016.00 and Fujikura Ltd. (TYO:5803) shed 0.92% or 9.00 points to 973.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2583 to 968 and 284 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.78% to 15.78.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.12% or 0.09 to $78.07 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 0.07% or 0.06 to hit $84.69 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.46% or 8.55 to trade at $1,849.05 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.27% to 136.40, while EUR/JPY fell 0.03% to 144.87.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 104.71.