Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Food and Chemical sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.29% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were JGC Corp. (T:1963), which rose 3.53% or 51.0 points to trade at 1497.0 at the close. Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (T:6504) added 3.33% or 120.0 points to end at 3725.0 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (T:8035) was up 3.30% or 485.0 points to 15170.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Takara Holdings Inc. (T:2531), which lost 4.26% or 54.0 points to trade at 1214.0 in late trade. Astellas Pharma Inc. (T:4503) declined 4.23% or 65.0 points to end at 1473.0 and Kikkoman Corp. (T:2801) shed 4.16% or 200.0 points to 4610.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1984 to 1491 and 220 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.43% to 17.68.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for July delivery was up 1.02% or 0.60 to $59.41 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in August rose 0.43% or 0.29 to hit $68.16 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.47% or 6.00 to trade at $1275.00 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.18% to 109.78, while EUR/JPY rose 0.20% to 122.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 98.093.