Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Precision Instruments, Gas & Water and Construction sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were SUMCO Corp. (T:3436), which rose 5.11% or 81.0 points to trade at 1665.0 at the close. The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (T:5101) added 3.75% or 84.0 points to end at 2325.0 and Olympus Corp. (T:7733) was up 3.71% or 150.0 points to 4190.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Toshiba Corp. (T:6502), which lost 7.08% or 15.6 points to trade at 204.6 in late trade. Yokogawa Electric Corp. (T:6841) declined 2.55% or 47.0 points to end at 1793.0 and NKSJ Holdings, Inc. (T:8630) shed 1.79% or 77.0 points to 4229.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1827 to 1141 and 374 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 1.64% to 14.89.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.82% or 0.41 to $50.69 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 1.05% or 0.56 to hit $53.67 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.35% or 4.25 to trade at $1205.15 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.16% to 114.52, while EUR/JPY rose 0.08% to 120.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 102.17.