Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, Mining and Steel sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (T:7735), which rose 4.87% or 470.0 points to trade at 10125.0 at the close. Advantest Corp. (T:6857) added 3.13% or 71.0 points to end at 2338.0 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (T:8035) was up 2.77% or 615.0 points to 22850.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ricoh Co., Ltd. (T:7752), which lost 5.79% or 65.0 points to trade at 1057.0 in late trade. Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (T:5301) declined 5.04% or 86.0 points to end at 1620.0 and Tosoh Corp. (T:4042) shed 4.79% or 123.0 points to 2443.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2411 to 984 and 188 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 5.02% to 15.48.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.09% or 0.06 to $64.03 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.07% or 0.05 to hit $69.33 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.87% or 11.60 to trade at $1327.60 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.04% to 111.27, while EUR/JPY rose 0.09% to 135.74.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 90.60.