Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, Power and Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.93%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Toshiba Corp. (T:6502), which rose 7.43% or 15.4 points to trade at 222.6 at the close. Hokuetsu Kishu Paper Co., Ltd. (T:3865) added 4.46% or 34.0 points to end at 797.0 and Oji Holdings Corp. (T:3861) was up 3.98% or 21.0 points to 549.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Unitika, Ltd. (T:3103), which lost 1.96% or 2.0 points to trade at 100.0 in late trade. Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (T:5801) declined 1.57% or 65.0 points to end at 4070.0 and Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. (T:5706) shed 1.32% or 5.0 points to 372.5.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2297 to 751 and 312 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 1.88% to 18.30.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 0.40% or 0.19 to $47.89 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.34% or 0.17 to hit $50.73 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.24% or 2.95 to trade at $1244.25 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.33% to 111.30, while EUR/JPY rose 0.23% to 119.90.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 99.71.