Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Steel, Banking and Precision Instruments sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Shimizu Corp. (TYO:1803), which rose 8.55% or 65.00 points to trade at 825.00 at the close. Obayashi Corp. (TYO:1802) added 5.24% or 55.00 points to end at 1,104.00 and Taisei Corp. (TYO:1801) was up 3.69% or 160.00 points to 4,500.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nippon Kayaku Co., Ltd. (TYO:4272), which lost 3.31% or 41.00 points to trade at 1,198.00 in late trade. Concordia Financial Group Ltd (TYO:7186) declined 2.71% or 14.00 points to end at 502.00 and Shinsei Bank, Ltd. (TYO:8303) shed 2.70% or 67.00 points to 2,411.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2797 to 820 and 220 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 1.37% to 16.32.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for June delivery was up 0.42% or 0.32 to $77.39 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July rose 0.29% or 0.23 to hit $80.83 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.11% or 2.15 to trade at $2,006.65 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.12% to 133.55, while EUR/JPY rose 0.30% to 147.15.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 101.29.