Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Communication, Paper & Pulp and Transport sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.60% to hit a new 52-week high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Advantest Corp. (TYO:6857), which rose 7.99% or 1,060.00 points to trade at 14,320.00 at the close. Sony Corp (TYO:6758) added 6.40% or 825.00 points to end at 13,720.00 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO:8035) was up 5.45% or 950.00 points to 18,370.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TYO:9501), which lost 4.75% or 24.00 points to trade at 481.00 in late trade. CyberAgent Inc (TYO:4751) declined 3.16% or 37.00 points to end at 1,135.00 and Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (TYO:3863) shed 2.84% or 33.00 points to 1,130.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1920 to 1680 and 251 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 3.13% to 17.78 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for June delivery was down 0.43% or 0.31 to $72.52 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July fell 0.42% or 0.32 to hit $76.64 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.26% or 5.15 to trade at $1,979.75 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.04% to 137.63, while EUR/JPY fell 0.20% to 148.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 102.88.