Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Insurance, Banking and Communication sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (T:5301), which rose 15.27% or 173.0 points to trade at 1306.0 at the close. Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004) added 11.47% or 460.0 points to end at 4470.0 and Tokyo Dome Corp. (T:9681) was up 4.85% or 54.0 points to 1168.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included KDDI Corp. (T:9433), which lost 6.65% or 208.0 points to trade at 2922.0 in late trade. Rakuten Inc (T:4755) declined 5.49% or 59.5 points to end at 1025.0 and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (T:9432) shed 5.39% or 305.0 points to 5351.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2196 to 1165 and 199 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.31% to 14.40 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.39% or 0.22 to $57.26 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.11% or 0.07 to hit $63.38 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.13% or 1.60 to trade at $1258.70 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.19% to 112.18, while EUR/JPY fell 0.05% to 132.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 93.50.