Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Power, Financial Services and Non-Metal Minerals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. (T:9502), which rose 6.86% or 97.5 points to trade at 1518.0 at the close. Panasonic Corp. (T:6752) added 6.61% or 57.5 points to end at 927.7 and Nippon Light Metal Holdings Co. (T:5703) was up 6.02% or 10.0 points to 176.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sharp Corp. (T:6753), which lost 14.37% or 25.0 points to trade at 149.0 in late trade. Okuma Corp. (T:6103) declined 4.61% or 39.0 points to end at 807.0 and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co (T:6305) shed 2.37% or 39.0 points to 1605.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1637 to 205 and 48 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 5.33% to 34.26.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.53% or 0.17 to $31.98 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.49% or 0.17 to hit $34.24 a barrel, while the April Gold contract fell 0.19% or 2.30 to trade at $1236.80 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.04% to 112.23, while EUR/JPY rose 0.25% to 123.84.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.10% at 97.41.