Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Steel and Non-Metal Minerals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.72%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Pacific Metals Co., Ltd. (TYO:5541), which rose 5.06% or 80.00 points to trade at 1,662.00 at the close. Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO:8035) added 3.25% or 685.00 points to end at 21,750.00 and Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (TYO:2802) was up 3.17% or 185.00 points to 6,029.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc (TYO:8750), which lost 1.31% or 35.00 points to trade at 2,641.50 in late trade. Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (TYO:4183) declined 1.24% or 49.00 points to end at 3,914.00 and Kuraray Co., Ltd. (TYO:3405) shed 1.19% or 19.00 points to 1,578.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2206 to 1383 and 252 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.49% to 18.39.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for October delivery was down 0.71% or 0.56 to $78.33 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in October fell 0.61% or 0.51 to hit $82.70 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.05% or 1.00 to trade at $1,949.10 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.25% to 145.20, while EUR/JPY rose 0.15% to 157.58.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 103.43.