Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Retail, Communication and Gas & Water sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Tokuyama Corp. (T:4043), which rose 7.98% or 40.0 points to trade at 541.0 at the close. Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004) added 4.40% or 91.0 points to end at 2160.0 and Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (T:5801) was up 4.16% or 180.0 points to 4510.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Yahoo Japan Corp. (T:4689), which lost 9.79% or 51.5 points to trade at 474.5 in late trade. Rakuten Inc (T:4755) declined 4.41% or 52.5 points to end at 1139.0 and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (T:9532) shed 4.13% or 17.9 points to 416.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1943 to 1099 and 308 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.40% to 15.04 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for June delivery was down 1.01% or 0.50 to $49.12 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July fell 1.01% or 0.53 to hit $51.88 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.11% or 1.33 to trade at $1265.53 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.30% to 111.38, while EUR/JPY rose 0.44% to 121.62.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 98.75.