Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gas & Water, Railway & Bus and Retail sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings (T:8725), which rose 5.10% or 180.0 points to trade at 3712.0 at the close. The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. (T:8750) added 3.20% or 56.5 points to end at 1824.8 and Daiwa Securities Group Inc. (T:8601) was up 3.06% or 20.1 points to 676.6 in late trade.
Biggest losers included SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc. (T:9412), which lost 4.76% or 25.0 points to trade at 500.0 in late trade. Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (T:9532) declined 3.88% or 16.9 points to end at 418.2 and Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (T:7911) shed 2.86% or 34.0 points to 1156.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1857 to 1183 and 311 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 7.67% to 17.40.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for June delivery was up 1.26% or 0.62 to $49.97 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July rose 1.22% or 0.64 to hit $53.15 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.28% or 3.49 to trade at $1249.31 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.01% to 111.47, while EUR/JPY rose 0.40% to 124.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.33% at 97.45.