Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Marine Transport, Gas & Water and Food sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Yamaha Motor Co Ltd (T:7272), which rose 1.32% or 45.0 points to trade at 3450.0 at the close. Yamaha Corp. (T:7951) added 1.27% or 60.0 points to end at 4790.0 and Yahoo Japan Corp. (T:4689) was up 1.21% or 6.0 points to 503.5 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pacific Metals Co., Ltd. (T:5541), which lost 5.26% or 175.0 points to trade at 3150.0 in late trade. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (T:7012) declined 4.96% or 195.0 points to end at 3732.5 and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co (T:6305) shed 4.79% or 220.0 points to 4375.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2818 to 607 and 137 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 5.04% to 22.09.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.21% or 0.13 to $61.77 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.25% or 0.16 to hit $64.89 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.21% or 2.80 to trade at $1315.10 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.10% to 106.78, while EUR/JPY rose 0.23% to 130.36.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 90.57.