Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Electrical/Machinery, Trading and Transportation Equipment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were The Kansai Electric Power Co. (T:9503), which rose 8.22% or 105.5 points to trade at 1388.5 at the close. Tokuyama Corp. (T:4043) added 4.97% or 27.0 points to end at 570.0 and IHI Corp. (T:7013) was up 4.83% or 16.5 points to 358.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ube Industries, Ltd. (T:4208), which lost 2.97% or 8.0 points to trade at 261.0 in late trade. Sony Financial Holdings Inc. (T:8729) declined 2.87% or 54.0 points to end at 1825.0 and Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (T:3863) shed 2.86% or 61.0 points to 2073.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1745 to 1363 and 244 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 9.27% to 17.92.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 0.83% or 0.40 to $48.77 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June rose 0.74% or 0.38 to hit $51.80 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.43% or 5.45 to trade at $1250.15 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.06% to 111.09, while EUR/JPY fell 0.30% to 119.80.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 99.72.