Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Precision Instruments, Pharmaceutical Industry and Electrical/Machinery sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 3.86% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Panasonic Corp (T:6752), which rose 0.47% or 5.7 points to trade at 1222.2 at the close. Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. (T:9531) added 0.02% or 0.5 points to end at 2755.0 and The Kansai Electric Power Co. (T:9503) was down 0.15% or 2.5 points to 1686.5 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Advantest Corp. (T:6857), which lost 9.78% or 205.0 points to trade at 1891.0 in late trade. Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (T:6504) declined 7.91% or 295.0 points to end at 3435.0 and Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (T:6976) shed 7.41% or 172.0 points to 2150.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 3527 to 153 and 54 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.56% to 25.22.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for December delivery was down 0.27% or 0.18 to $66.64 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in December fell 0.14% or 0.11 to hit $76.06 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.64% or 7.80 to trade at $1235.60 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.03% to 112.28, while EUR/JPY rose 0.16% to 128.08.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 96.10.