Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Transport, Finance & Investment and Communication sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (TYO:9107), which rose 2.61% or 80.00 points to trade at 3,150.00 at the close. Panasonic Corp (TYO:6752) added 1.97% or 24.00 points to end at 1,240.00 and Olympus Corp. (TYO:7733) was up 1.47% or 35.50 points to 2,446.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (TYO:4568), which lost 4.30% or 205.00 points to trade at 4,567.00 in late trade. Taiheiyo Cement Corp. (TYO:5233) declined 4.11% or 103.00 points to end at 2,404.00 and Komatsu Ltd. (TYO:6301) shed 4.10% or 137.00 points to 3,208.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 3223 to 428 and 174 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.10% to 16.55.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 0.46% or 0.37 to $81.08 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June rose 0.54% or 0.46 to hit $85.40 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.27% or 5.45 to trade at $2,043.65 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.11% to 131.54, while EUR/JPY rose 0.01% to 144.24.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 101.19.