Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Gas & Water, Paper & Pulp and Railway & Bus sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Toshiba Corp. (T:6502), which rose 4.07% or 8.4 points to trade at 214.8 at the close. Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (T:5801) added 3.69% or 150.0 points to end at 4210.0 and Fanuc Corp. (T:6954) was up 2.91% or 655.0 points to 23185.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd. (T:5232), which lost 1.72% or 8.0 points to trade at 458.0 in late trade. Denso Corp. (T:6902) declined 1.67% or 81.0 points to end at 4773.0 and JX Holdings, Inc. (T:5020) shed 1.60% or 8.7 points to 535.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1831 to 1209 and 315 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 6.10% to 18.25.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 1.00% or 0.51 to $51.54 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June rose 1.02% or 0.55 to hit $54.72 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.05% or 0.65 to trade at $1257.75 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.03% to 110.72, while EUR/JPY rose 0.05% to 118.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 100.34.