Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Food and Retail sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.49%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were JX Holdings, Inc. (T:5020), which rose 4.28% or 28.1 points to trade at 683.9 at the close. Softbank Corp. (T:9984) added 3.44% or 266.0 points to end at 7987.5 and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (T:5713) was up 3.20% or 140.0 points to 4516.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included J.Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (T:3086), which lost 9.28% or 168.0 points to trade at 1642.0 in late trade. Terumo Corp. (T:4543) declined 6.45% or 380.0 points to end at 5510.0 and Kao Corp. (T:4452) shed 4.26% or 348.0 points to 7814.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2146 to 1209 and 187 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 1.32% to 20.96.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was down 0.40% or 0.26 to $65.25 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June fell 0.52% or 0.37 to hit $70.67 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.08% or 1.10 to trade at $1347.00 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.24% to 106.94, while EUR/JPY fell 0.17% to 132.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 89.26.