Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Food and Communication sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. (T:9983), which rose 6.00% or 2810.0 points to trade at 49610.0 at the close. Chiyoda Corp. (T:6366) added 4.11% or 36.0 points to end at 912.0 and Kobe Steel, Ltd. (T:5406) was up 4.07% or 46.0 points to 1175.5 in late trade.
Biggest losers included GS Yuasa Corp. (T:6674), which lost 5.57% or 34.0 points to trade at 576.0 in late trade. Familymart Ltd (T:8028) declined 4.90% or 380.0 points to end at 7370.0 and Tokyu Fudosan (T:3289) shed 4.49% or 40.0 points to 850.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1936 to 1427 and 208 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.78% to 15.72.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was down 0.72% or 0.46 to $63.34 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.40% or 0.28 to hit $68.98 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.40% or 5.30 to trade at $1327.80 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.06% to 111.34, while EUR/JPY rose 0.37% to 134.34.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.16% at 91.51.