Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Power and Shipbuilding sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Aozora Bank, Ltd. (TYO:8304), which rose 9.46% or 237.50 points to trade at 2,748.50 at the close. Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (TYO:3382) added 6.19% or 130.00 points to end at 2,230.00 and Rakuten Inc (TYO:4755) was up 3.98% or 31.40 points to 820.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TYO:9501), which lost 4.66% or 39.60 points to trade at 810.00 in late trade. Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. (TYO:9531) declined 4.32% or 148.00 points to end at 3,279.00 and DeNA Co Ltd (TYO:2432) shed 4.06% or 62.00 points to 1,465.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2217 to 1476 and 189 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 5.78% to 19.22.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.05% or 0.04 to $78.58 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.02% or 0.02 to hit $82.17 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.09% or 1.85 to trade at $2,044.55 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.58% to 149.79, while EUR/JPY fell 0.62% to 162.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 103.81.