Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Steel, Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic and Non-Metal Minerals sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.50%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were SUMCO Corp. (T:3436), which rose 6.20% or 109.0 points to trade at 1868.0 at the close. Nichirei Corp. (T:2871) added 5.72% or 134.0 points to end at 2475.0 and Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (T:5707) was up 3.75% or 21.0 points to 581.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hitachi, Ltd. (T:6501), which lost 8.10% or 54.8 points to trade at 621.8 in late trade. Ebara Corp. (T:6361) declined 7.53% or 260.0 points to end at 3195.0 and Toshiba Corp. (T:6502) shed 6.74% or 16.3 points to 225.4.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1726 to 1235 and 368 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 6.35% to 18.13.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 0.52% or 0.27 to $52.61 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.60% or 0.33 to hit $55.45 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.13% or 1.55 to trade at $1241.05 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.28% to 112.25, while EUR/JPY rose 0.05% to 119.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 100.38.