Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Gas & Water and Banking sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 1.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Otsuka Holdings Ltd (T:4578), which rose 3.37% or 160.0 points to trade at 4912.0 at the close. Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004) added 2.71% or 105.0 points to end at 3980.0 and Dentsu Inc. (T:4324) was up 2.18% or 105.0 points to 4925.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. (T:5002), which lost 6.83% or 101.0 points to trade at 1377.0 in late trade. Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (T:5707) declined 6.01% or 390.0 points to end at 6100.0 and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings (T:8309) shed 5.55% or 240.00 points to 4081.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 3161 to 276 and 76 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 4.96% to 18.58.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for December delivery was down 1.01% or 0.56 to $55.14 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 0.96% or 0.60 to hit $61.61 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract fell 0.03% or 0.34 to trade at $1282.56 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.37% to 113.03, while EUR/JPY fell 0.26% to 133.49.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 93.59.