Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Precision Instruments, Insurance and Electrical/Machinery sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 2.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (T:9501), which rose 4.13% or 14.0 points to trade at 353.0 at the close. IHI Corp. (T:7013) added 3.76% or 103.0 points to end at 2843.0 and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (T:9107) was up 2.84% or 190.0 points to 6880.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd (T:6178), which lost 5.69% or 57.1 points to trade at 945.9 in late trade. Advantest Corp. (T:6857) declined 5.64% or 610.0 points to end at 10210.0 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (T:8035) shed 5.27% or 2840.0 points to 51000.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2650 to 918 and 173 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 6.06% to 22.40.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for November delivery was down 0.54% or 0.41 to $74.88 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in December fell 0.63% or 0.49 to hit $77.86 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.09% or 1.55 to trade at $1739.05 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.01% to 111.49, while EUR/JPY fell 0.25% to 129.92.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.17% at 93.942.