Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Rubber and Automobiles & Parts sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (T:3863), which rose 6.70% or 129.0 points to trade at 2054.0 at the close. Suzuki Motor Corp. (T:7269) added 5.69% or 161.5 points to end at 2998.5 and Yamaha Corp. (T:7951) was up 5.31% or 170.0 points to 3370.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included The Kansai Electric Power Co. (T:9503), which lost 14.74% or 181.0 points to trade at 1047.0 in late trade. Pioneer Corp. (T:6773) declined 3.79% or 10.0 points to end at 254.0 and Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. (T:9502) shed 2.91% or 43.0 points to 1434.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1638 to 188 and 65 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 0.87% to 30.93.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.52% or 0.20 to $38.09 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 0.80% or 0.33 to hit $40.74 a barrel, while the April Gold contract fell 0.86% or 10.80 to trade at $1246.60 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.25% to 113.62, while EUR/JPY rose 0.06% to 124.76.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.16% at 97.35.