Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Shipbuilding, Retail and Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.20%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Hokuetsu Kishu Paper Co., Ltd. (T:3865), which rose 7.78% or 42.0 points to trade at 582.0 at the close. Oji Holdings Corp. (T:3861) added 4.59% or 27.0 points to end at 615.0 and Nomura Holdings Inc (T:8604) was up 4.07% or 17.8 points to 455.5 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chiyoda Corp. (T:6366), which lost 6.39% or 20.0 points to trade at 293.0 in late trade. Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (T:7735) declined 5.46% or 275.0 points to end at 4765.0 and Familymart Ltd (T:8028) shed 3.96% or 520.0 points to 12610.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2319 to 1158 and 211 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.51% to 22.11.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was down 0.84% or 0.44 to $51.87 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.75% or 0.46 to hit $60.86 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.04% or 0.55 to trade at $1293.25 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.27% to 108.78, while EUR/JPY fell 0.36% to 123.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 95.817.