Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004), which rose 7.29% or 275.0 points to trade at 4045.0 at the close. Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. (T:2502) added 7.15% or 394.0 points to end at 5904.0 and Comsys Holdings Corp. (T:1721) was up 6.27% or 183.0 points to 3100.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Yokogawa Electric Corp. (T:6841), which lost 12.10% or 287.0 points to trade at 2085.0 in late trade. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (T:9501) declined 8.14% or 48.5 points to end at 547.5 and Minebea Mitsumi Inc (T:6479) shed 5.77% or 129.0 points to 2108.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1999 to 1350 and 212 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.63% to 14.86 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for June delivery was up 2.97% or 2.05 to $71.11 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July rose 2.95% or 2.21 to hit $77.06 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.59% or 7.80 to trade at $1305.90 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.57% to 109.74, while EUR/JPY rose 0.36% to 129.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 93.13.