Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.82% to hit a new 5-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Dentsu Inc. (T:4324), which rose 5.26% or 160.0 points to trade at 3200.0 at the close. Panasonic Corp (T:6752) added 4.97% or 66.5 points to end at 1404.0 and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp (T:4188) was up 4.93% or 33.0 points to 702.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hitachi Zosen Corp. (T:7004), which lost 3.04% or 21.0 points to trade at 669.0 in late trade. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (T:7012) declined 2.68% or 66.0 points to end at 2398.0 and AGC Inc (T:5201) shed 2.30% or 90.0 points to 3830.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2222 to 1257 and 253 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 23.71.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.45% or 0.24 to $53.07 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.41% or 0.23 to hit $55.85 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.03% or 0.50 to trade at $1866.00 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.06% to 103.45, while EUR/JPY rose 0.14% to 125.47.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 90.305.