Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Transport, Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic and Pharmaceutical Industry sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (T:4506), which rose 10.39% or 160.0 points to trade at 1700.0 at the close. Kirin Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:2503) added 6.98% or 177.5 points to end at 2721.5 and SUMCO Corp. (T:3436) was up 5.87% or 159.0 points to 2869.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Eisai Co., Ltd. (T:4523), which lost 4.19% or 241.0 points to trade at 5514.0 in late trade. Kubota Corp. (T:6326) declined 3.73% or 76.5 points to end at 1972.5 and MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings (T:8725) shed 3.30% or 114.0 points to 3342.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2423 to 989 and 151 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 11.05% to 30.02.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 1.27% or 0.77 to $61.37 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.89% or 0.57 to hit $64.93 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.08% or 1.10 to trade at $1356.90 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.68% to 106.27, while EUR/JPY fell 0.33% to 132.79.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.36% at 88.59.