Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Insurance, Financial Services and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.87%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TYO:4519), which rose 3.53% or 237.00 points to trade at 6,954.00 at the close. DIC Corp (TYO:4631) added 2.77% or 95.00 points to end at 3,520.00 and Nintendo Co Ltd (TYO:7974) was up 2.43% or 216.00 points to 9,119.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (TYO:9107), which lost 5.80% or 130.50 points to trade at 2,121.00 in late trade. Lasertec Corp (TYO:6920) declined 5.23% or 855.00 points to end at 15,505.00 and Nippon Yusen K.K (TYO:9101) shed 5.15% or 275.00 points to 5,062.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2672 to 975 and 228 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 4.35% to 21.79.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.23% or 0.17 to $73.49 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.22% or 0.17 to hit $76.33 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.38% or 10.06 to trade at $2,682.46 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.10% to 158.18, while EUR/JPY fell 0.24% to 162.99.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 109.00.