Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Mining, Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic and Shipbuilding sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 1.77% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Kobe Steel, Ltd. (TYO:5406), which rose 15.73% or 87.00 points to trade at 640.00 at the close. Hitachi Zosen Corp. (TYO:7004) added 14.64% or 100.00 points to end at 783.00 and Japan Steel Works Ltd (TYO:5631) was up 14.62% or 384.00 points to 3,010.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TYO:6703), which lost 9.93% or 86.00 points to trade at 780.00 in late trade. NTT Data Corp. (TYO:9613) declined 9.85% or 224.00 points to end at 2,050.00 and Softbank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) shed 8.03% or 392.00 points to 4,491.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2932 to 673 and 148 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.14% to 29.71.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for June delivery was down 2.38% or 2.52 to $103.19 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July fell 2.20% or 2.36 to hit $105.15 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.26% or 4.90 to trade at $1,848.80 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.86% to 128.85, while EUR/JPY fell 1.29% to 134.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.41% at 104.31.