Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Steel, Finance & Investment and Financial Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Toshiba Corp. (T:6502), which rose 4.47% or 9.6 points to trade at 224.2 at the close. Meiji Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:2269) added 1.70% or 150.0 points to end at 8950.0 and Rakuten Inc (T:4755) was up 1.64% or 18.5 points to 1144.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Komatsu Ltd. (T:6301), which lost 5.44% or 156.0 points to trade at 2710.5 in late trade. Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (T:6302) declined 4.91% or 41.0 points to end at 794.0 and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (T:5711) shed 4.50% or 175.0 points to 3717.4.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1649 to 1336 and 368 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 1.00% to 17.15.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.15% or 0.08 to $54.37 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.14% or 0.08 to hit $56.50 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.22% or 2.75 to trade at $1254.15 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.16% to 112.79, while EUR/JPY rose 0.21% to 119.41.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 100.93.