Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Power, Banking and Paper & Pulp sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.36%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Softbank Corp. (T:9984), which rose 3.57% or 304.5 points to trade at 8825.5 at the close. Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (T:5801) added 3.49% or 165.0 points to end at 4890.0 and Konami Corp. (T:9766) was up 3.47% or 180.0 points to 5360.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Furukawa Co., Ltd. (T:5715), which lost 3.50% or 7.0 points to trade at 193.0 in late trade. Tosoh Corp. (T:4042) declined 3.29% or 32.0 points to end at 940.0 and Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (T:5301) shed 2.82% or 16.0 points to 552.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1610 to 1406 and 357 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 5.35% to 15.21.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for July delivery was down 0.29% or 0.15 to $51.21 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July fell 0.11% or 0.06 to hit $53.90 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.45% or 5.63 to trade at $1258.73 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.21% to 111.73, while EUR/JPY rose 0.47% to 125.66.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 96.83.