Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, Shipbuilding and Insurance sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Hokuetsu Kishu Paper Co., Ltd. (T:3865), which rose 2.94% or 18.0 points to trade at 630.0 at the close. Rakuten Inc (T:4755) added 2.76% or 26.0 points to end at 969.0 and Oji Holdings Corp. (T:3861) was up 2.74% or 18.0 points to 675.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Amada Co., Ltd. (T:6113), which lost 4.30% or 49.0 points to trade at 1091.0 in late trade. Okuma Corp. (T:6103) declined 4.22% or 250.0 points to end at 5680.0 and Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (T:4063) shed 3.85% or 357.0 points to 8925.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1965 to 1486 and 234 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 3.02% to 17.73.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.65% or 0.38 to $58.64 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.80% or 0.54 to hit $68.09 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.55% or 7.25 to trade at $1302.05 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.48% to 111.69, while EUR/JPY rose 0.51% to 126.53.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 96.530.