Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Fishery and Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.81%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (TYO:8306), which rose 5.25% or 69.00 points to trade at 1,384.00 at the close. Resona Holdings, Inc. (TYO:8308) added 4.65% or 35.80 points to end at 805.00 and Chiba Bank Ltd (TYO:8331) was up 4.57% or 48.00 points to 1,098.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. (TYO:8801), which lost 4.18% or 160.00 points to trade at 3,671.00 in late trade. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (TYO:7003) declined 4.04% or 31.00 points to end at 737.00 and Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd (TYO:8802) shed 3.84% or 82.00 points to 2,054.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2073 to 1549 and 267 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 5.95% to 21.90.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 0.17% or 0.13 to $74.50 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.16% or 0.13 to hit $79.68 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.05% or 0.95 to trade at $2,026.75 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.31% to 147.90, while EUR/JPY fell 0.22% to 160.68.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 103.23.