Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Marine Transport, Insurance and Finance & Investment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.10% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004), which rose 8.61% or 164.0 points to trade at 2069.0 at the close. IHI Corp. (T:7013) added 7.20% or 25.5 points to end at 379.5 and NTN Corp. (T:6472) was up 4.98% or 27.0 points to 569.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Familymart Ltd (T:8028), which lost 1.70% or 110.0 points to trade at 6350.0 in late trade. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (T:9432) declined 1.40% or 67.0 points to end at 4711.0 and Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (T:4507) shed 0.99% or 57.0 points to 5728.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2624 to 524 and 214 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 7.27% to 15.57 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for June delivery was down 0.06% or 0.03 to $49.53 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in July fell 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $52.55 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.09% or 1.08 to trade at $1266.12 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.15% to 111.26, while EUR/JPY fell 0.02% to 121.39.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 98.86.