Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Steel, Power and Machinery sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 3.14% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Sapporo Holdings Ltd. (TYO:2501), which rose 3.23% or 196.00 points to trade at 6,256.00 at the close. Nichirei Corp. (TYO:2871) added 3.13% or 117.00 points to end at 3,851.00 and Asahi Kasei Corp. (TYO:3407) was up 1.81% or 18.50 points to 1,038.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Renesas Electronics Corp (TYO:6723), which lost 13.62% or 407.50 points to trade at 2,583.50 in late trade. Hitachi Ltd (TYO:6501) declined 9.42% or 320.00 points to end at 3,078.00 and SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) shed 9.39% or 970.00 points to 9,365.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 3043 to 658 and 184 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 7.48% to 19.06.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for September delivery was down 0.79% or 0.61 to $76.98 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in September fell 0.72% or 0.59 to hit $81.12 a barrel, while the August Gold Futures contract fell 1.74% or 41.95 to trade at $2,373.75 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.73% to 152.75, while EUR/JPY fell 0.77% to 165.53.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 104.04.