Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Steel, Fishery and Precision Instruments sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Advantest Corp. (T:6857), which rose 8.03% or 135.0 points to trade at 1817.0 at the close. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (T:7201) added 3.00% or 35.0 points to end at 1202.5 and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (T:7211) was up 2.12% or 14.0 points to 675.5 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Olympus Corp. (T:7733), which lost 3.95% or 170.0 points to trade at 4135.0 in late trade. Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. (T:4061) declined 3.75% or 20.0 points to end at 514.0 and NEC Corp. (T:6701) shed 3.38% or 11.0 points to 314.5.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2122 to 945 and 305 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.17% to 17.78.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.54% or 0.29 to $53.59 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.45% or 0.25 to hit $55.60 a barrel, while the February Gold contract rose 0.39% or 4.45 to trade at $1138.05 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.35% to 117.44, while EUR/JPY fell 0.11% to 122.33.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.18% at 103.07.