Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Marine Transport and Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (T:7003), which rose 4.46% or 87.0 points to trade at 2036.0 at the close. Fukuoka Financial Group, Inc. (T:8354) added 3.00% or 20.0 points to end at 686.0 and JX Holdings, Inc. (T:5020) was up 2.86% or 21.6 points to 776.2 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chiyoda Corp. (T:6366), which lost 4.09% or 36.0 points to trade at 845.0 in late trade. Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. (T:2502) declined 3.93% or 238.0 points to end at 5815.0 and Taiheiyo Cement Corp. (T:5233) shed 3.14% or 157.6 points to 4857.5.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1817 to 1540 and 218 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 7.28% to 16.81 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.76% or 0.48 to $63.44 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.48% or 0.33 to hit $69.15 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.18% or 2.30 to trade at $1311.40 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.67% to 111.91, while EUR/JPY fell 0.67% to 133.57.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 92.17.