Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, Paper & Pulp and Communication sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (T:5201), which rose 5.94% or 260.0 points to trade at 4635.0 at the close. JGC Corp. (T:1963) added 4.90% or 106.0 points to end at 2270.0 and Minebea Mitsumi Inc (T:6479) was up 4.37% or 100.0 points to 2390.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (T:5707), which lost 5.71% or 350.0 points to trade at 5780.0 in late trade. Meiji Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:2269) declined 5.13% or 440.0 points to end at 8140.0 and SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc. (T:9412) shed 3.59% or 18.0 points to 484.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2632 to 788 and 141 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 51.69% to 31.02.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.15% or 0.09 to $61.70 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.09% or 0.06 to hit $65.45 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.02% or 0.20 to trade at $1314.80 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.14% to 109.53, while EUR/JPY rose 0.28% to 134.51.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 90.11.