Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Railway & Bus, Rubber and Pharmaceutical Industry sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984), which rose 6.18% or 302.00 points to trade at 5,190.00 at the close. J.Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (TYO:3086) added 3.79% or 46.00 points to end at 1,260.00 and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. (TYO:3099) was up 3.34% or 46.00 points to 1,422.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Rakuten Inc (TYO:4755), which lost 1.75% or 11.00 points to trade at 616.00 in late trade. Nippon Yusen K.K (TYO:9101) declined 0.91% or 30.00 points to end at 3,263.00 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO:8035) shed 0.56% or 270.00 points to 48,320.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2939 to 689 and 192 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 0.37% to 19.01.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 1.00% or 0.73 to $73.93 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June rose 0.64% or 0.50 to hit $78.64 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.55% or 10.95 to trade at $1,979.45 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.88% to 132.01, while EUR/JPY rose 0.75% to 142.98.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.21% at 102.32.