Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Insurance, Banking and Finance & Investment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.68% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. (T:9983), which rose 18.08% or 5000.0 points to trade at 32660.0 at the close. The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. (T:8750) added 7.78% or 90.5 points to end at 1254.0 and Nomura Holdings Inc (T:8604) was up 5.87% or 23.4 points to 422.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Konami Corp. (T:9766), which lost 8.58% or 385.0 points to trade at 4100.0 in late trade. Takara Holdings Inc. (T:2531) declined 5.59% or 56.0 points to end at 945.0 and Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (T:1332) shed 4.00% or 21.0 points to 504.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1034 to 913 and 110 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 1.70% to 28.79.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for August delivery was down 1.05% or 0.48 to $45.20 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in September fell 1.08% or 0.51 to hit $46.86 a barrel, while the August Gold contract rose 0.05% or 0.65 to trade at $1332.85 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.21% to 105.60, while EUR/JPY rose 0.23% to 117.45.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 96.09.