Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, Trading and Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.14%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Softbank Group Corp. (T:9984), which rose 2.41% or 189.0 points to trade at 8028.0 at the close. Dentsu Inc. (T:4324) added 1.75% or 90.0 points to end at 5230.0 and Ricoh Co., Ltd. (T:7752) was up 1.62% or 18.0 points to 1131.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included JX Holdings, Inc. (T:5020), which lost 3.45% or 20.3 points to trade at 567.3 in late trade. Subaru Corp (T:7270) declined 3.44% or 88.0 points to end at 2469.5 and Shiseido Co., Ltd. (T:4911) shed 3.33% or 208.0 points to 6032.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2374 to 1094 and 206 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.15% to 20.62.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 0.15% or 0.08 to $53.09 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.08% or 0.05 to hit $61.55 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.15% or 1.95 to trade at $1285.35 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.21% to 109.58, while EUR/JPY rose 0.21% to 124.47.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.007.