Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Insurance, Transport and Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.30%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nippon Steel&Sumitomo Metal Corp. (T:5401), which rose 4.96% or 127.0 points to trade at 2688.2 at the close. JFE Holdings, Inc. (T:5411) added 4.36% or 80.0 points to end at 1916.5 and Nippon Yusen K.K (T:9101) was up 4.06% or 9.0 points to 230.5 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dentsu Inc. (T:4324), which lost 2.73% or 150.0 points to trade at 5350.0 in late trade. Meiji Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:2269) declined 1.34% or 120.0 points to end at 8860.0 and Unitika, Ltd. (T:3103) shed 1.22% or 1.0 points to 81.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1561 to 1426 and 350 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 9.02% to 20.78.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.30% or 0.16 to $52.64 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.32% or 0.18 to hit $55.65 a barrel, while the February Gold contract fell 0.03% or 0.35 to trade at $1212.55 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.65% to 113.34, while EUR/JPY rose 0.37% to 121.09.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.35% at 100.61.