Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, Paper & Pulp and Insurance sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 1.90%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were JFE Holdings, Inc. (T:5411), which rose 2.37% or 43.0 points to trade at 1858.0 at the close. Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (T:1332) added 1.08% or 5.0 points to end at 470.0 and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (T:4502) was up 0.96% or 57.0 points to 5981.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Minebea Co., Ltd. (T:6479), which lost 5.04% or 57.0 points to trade at 1075.0 in late trade. SUMCO Corp. (T:3436) declined 4.73% or 49.0 points to end at 988.0 and Itochu Corp. (T:8001) shed 4.61% or 69.0 points to 1429.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1581 to 296 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 7.81% to 23.05.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was down 0.33% or 0.12 to $34.84 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.69% or 0.26 to hit $37.15 a barrel, while the February Gold contract rose 0.65% or 6.80 to trade at $1056.40 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.60% to 121.82, while EUR/JPY fell 0.28% to 132.32.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.44% at 98.77.