Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Shipbuilding, Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:9064), which rose 2.79% or 83.5 points to trade at 3073.0 at the close. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (T:2802) added 2.69% or 50.0 points to end at 1905.5 and Subaru Corp (T:7270) was up 2.06% or 50.5 points to 2497.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. (T:3099), which lost 5.55% or 67.0 points to trade at 1141.0 in late trade. Olympus Corp. (T:7733) declined 4.89% or 230.0 points to end at 4475.0 and Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004) shed 4.82% or 180.0 points to 3555.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2055 to 1432 and 197 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.78% to 22.68.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.38% or 0.20 to $52.31 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.54% or 0.33 to hit $60.97 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.24% or 3.05 to trade at $1291.45 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.08% to 108.58, while EUR/JPY fell 0.04% to 123.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 95.537.