Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Railway & Bus and Gas & Water sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.40% to hit a new 5-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Kobe Steel, Ltd. (T:5406), which rose 6.65% or 55.0 points to trade at 881.5 at the close. SUMCO Corp. (T:3436) added 4.83% or 92.0 points to end at 1995.0 and Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (T:4063) was up 2.93% or 310.0 points to 10880.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. (T:4061), which lost 2.40% or 90.0 points to trade at 3655.0 in late trade. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (T:7003) declined 1.91% or 28.0 points to end at 1441.0 and Ricoh Co., Ltd. (T:7752) shed 1.53% or 18.0 points to 1159.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1829 to 1414 and 253 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 4.93% to 15.04.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for November delivery was down 1.50% or 0.78 to $51.26 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in December fell 1.20% or 0.70 to hit $57.45 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.25% or 3.23 to trade at $1286.23 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.28% to 112.62, while EUR/JPY fell 0.26% to 132.78.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 93.33.