Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Softbank Group Corp. (T:9984), which rose 10.91% or 817.0 points to trade at 8306.0 at the close. Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. (T:5706) added 6.00% or 200.0 points to end at 3535.0 and Hitachi Zosen Corp. (T:7004) was up 5.87% or 24.0 points to 433.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (T:6976), which lost 4.71% or 225.0 points to trade at 4555.0 in late trade. Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (T:6770) declined 3.95% or 52.0 points to end at 1265.0 and Daikin Industries, Ltd. (T:6367) shed 3.90% or 925.0 points to 22770.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2201 to 1299 and 219 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 19.48 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.20% or 0.09 to $45.61 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.12% or 0.06 to hit $48.92 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.14% or 2.50 to trade at $1841.00 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.28% to 104.50, while EUR/JPY rose 0.41% to 126.40.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 91.055.