Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Warehousing and Non-Metal Minerals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Sekisui House, Ltd. (T:1928), which rose 4.88% or 88.0 points to trade at 1892.5 at the close. Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (T:7735) added 3.54% or 350.0 points to end at 10245.0 and Asahi Kasei Corp. (T:3407) was up 3.51% or 46.0 points to 1357.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kobe Steel, Ltd. (T:5406), which lost 7.74% or 86.0 points to trade at 1025.5 in late trade. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (T:7012) declined 4.36% or 155.0 points to end at 3402.5 and Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (T:9501) shed 4.00% or 16.0 points to 384.5.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1859 to 1481 and 218 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 8.40% to 25.09.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.18% or 0.11 to $60.23 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.25% or 0.16 to hit $63.77 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.21% or 2.80 to trade at $1318.90 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.47% to 106.71, while EUR/JPY rose 0.49% to 131.41.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 90.15.