Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Insurance, Finance & Investment and Banking sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.30%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Citizen Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:7762), which rose 3.70% or 26.0 points to trade at 729.0 at the close. Inpex Corp. (T:1605) added 3.68% or 40.0 points to end at 1127.0 and Concordia Financial Group Ltd (T:7186) was up 3.26% or 19.8 points to 627.1 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (T:4506), which lost 2.83% or 57.0 points to trade at 1954.0 in late trade. Tokuyama Corp. (T:4043) declined 2.12% or 11.0 points to end at 507.0 and Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (T:4063) shed 2.08% or 210.0 points to 9890.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1566 to 1423 and 346 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 0.16% to 18.78.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.06% or 0.03 to $53.75 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.12% or 0.07 to hit $56.17 a barrel, while the February Gold contract fell 0.70% or 8.35 to trade at $1181.45 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.55% to 115.18, while EUR/JPY rose 0.39% to 122.83.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.26% at 100.78.