Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.74%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Softbank Group Corp. (T:9984), which rose 11.89% or 611.0 points to trade at 5751.0 at the close. Chiyoda Corp. (T:6366) added 9.90% or 38.0 points to end at 422.0 and Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (T:7735) was up 5.00% or 320.0 points to 6720.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included The Japan Steel Works, Ltd. (T:5631), which lost 7.89% or 165.0 points to trade at 1926.0 in late trade. Kajima Corp. (T:1812) declined 4.77% or 68.0 points to end at 1359.0 and Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd. (T:5232) shed 4.60% or 205.0 points to 4255.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1960 to 1585 and 237 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 17.97.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 1.46% or 0.73 to $50.67 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 2.04% or 1.10 to hit $55.11 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.17% or 2.65 to trade at $1567.45 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.12% to 109.91, while EUR/JPY rose 0.12% to 119.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 98.657.