Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Shipbuilding, Paper & Pulp and Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.78%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Keisei Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (TYO:9009), which rose 5.02% or 222.00 points to trade at 4,641.00 at the close. Resonac Holdings Corp (TYO:4004) added 4.08% or 163.00 points to end at 4,155.00 and Kansai Electric Power Co Inc (TYO:9503) was up 3.89% or 71.50 points to 1,907.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp (TYO:4188), which lost 5.75% or 48.40 points to trade at 793.60 in late trade. Mazda Motor Corp (TYO:7261) declined 5.51% or 55.10 points to end at 944.80 and Fanuc Corp. (TYO:6954) shed 4.91% or 205.00 points to 3,973.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2839 to 792 and 225 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 11.80% to 20.85 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.15% or 0.10 to $68.87 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.14% or 0.10 to hit $72.42 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 1.01% or 26.69 to trade at $2,672.99 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.61% to 152.16, while EUR/JPY fell 0.62% to 159.57.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 106.75.