Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Transport, Pharmaceutical Industry and Transportation Equipment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.38%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were JFE Holdings, Inc. (T:5411), which rose 5.54% or 98.5 points to trade at 1877.0 at the close. Nippon Steel&Sumitomo Metal Corp. (T:5401) added 4.48% or 117.5 points to end at 2741.4 and SUMCO Corp. (T:3436) was up 4.36% or 64.0 points to 1532.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sumitomo Realty & Development Co. (T:8830), which lost 2.54% or 81.0 points to trade at 3104.0 in late trade. Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. (T:8801) declined 2.25% or 62.0 points to end at 2699.5 and Konami Corp. (T:9766) shed 2.07% or 100.0 points to 4735.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1642 to 1363 and 349 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 2.86% to 20.53.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.31% or 0.16 to $50.98 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.22% or 0.12 to hit $53.76 a barrel, while the February Gold contract rose 0.35% or 4.15 to trade at $1189.65 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.20% to 116.00, while EUR/JPY rose 0.25% to 122.48.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.02% at 102.03.