Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were IHI Corp. (T:7013), which rose 3.69% or 92.0 points to trade at 2582.0 at the close. Yahoo Japan Corp. (T:4689) added 2.75% or 12.0 points to end at 449.0 and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (T:9104) was up 2.75% or 80.0 points to 2988.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (T:4507), which lost 1.00% or 68.0 points to trade at 6765.0 in late trade. Olympus Corp. (T:7733) declined 0.91% or 15.5 points to end at 1691.5 and Sapporo Holdings Ltd. (T:2501) shed 0.85% or 23.0 points to 2674.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2613 to 972 and 218 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 13.77.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.26% or 0.16 to $61.27 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.16% or 0.11 to hit $67.38 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.23% or 3.45 to trade at $1508.25 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.19% to 109.56, while EUR/JPY rose 0.20% to 121.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 97.220.