Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gas & Water, Pharmaceutical Industry and Insurance sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.95% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were CyberAgent Inc (TYO:4751), which rose 6.94% or 84.00 points to trade at 1,294.00 at the close. Nippon Yusen K.K (TYO:9101) added 6.05% or 167.50 points to end at 2,938.00 and Advantest Corp. (TYO:6857) was up 4.56% or 410.00 points to 9,400.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mazda Motor Corp (TYO:7261), which lost 2.42% or 27.00 points to trade at 1,091.00 in late trade. JGC Corp. (TYO:1963) declined 1.87% or 36.00 points to end at 1,894.00 and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (TYO:7211) shed 1.79% or 11.00 points to 603.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2865 to 708 and 248 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.39% to 17.15 a new 52-week low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was down 0.60% or 0.47 to $77.47 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 0.64% or 0.55 to hit $84.86 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.62% or 10.90 to trade at $1,756.50 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.66% to 138.68, while EUR/JPY fell 0.35% to 144.60.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.25% at 105.71.