Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Food, Railway & Bus and Retail sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Sapporo Holdings Ltd. (T:2501), which rose 7.01% or 172.0 points to trade at 2624.0 at the close. Familymart Ltd (T:8028) added 5.24% or 830.0 points to end at 16670.0 and Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd. (T:8804) was up 4.10% or 48.0 points to 1218.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Toshiba Corp. (T:6502), which lost 5.43% or 210.0 points to trade at 3655.0 in late trade. Pacific Metals Co., Ltd. (T:5541) declined 4.11% or 130.0 points to end at 3030.0 and IHI Corp. (T:7013) shed 3.43% or 125.0 points to 3515.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2369 to 1126 and 213 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.09% to 21.21.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was down 1.78% or 0.97 to $53.66 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 1.75% or 1.11 to hit $62.37 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract fell 0.01% or 0.10 to trade at $1227.90 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.11% to 112.95, while EUR/JPY fell 0.01% to 128.74.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 96.555.