Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Steel, Electrical/Machinery and Marine Transport sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Tokuyama Corp. (T:4043), which rose 9.11% or 43.0 points to trade at 515.0 at the close. Alps Electric Co., Ltd. (T:6770) added 6.49% or 182.0 points to end at 2988.0 and Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (T:5301) was up 5.60% or 21.0 points to 396.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Toshiba Corp. (T:6502), which lost 2.31% or 6.0 points to trade at 253.8 in late trade. Nichirei Corp. (T:2871) declined 1.59% or 37.0 points to end at 2293.0 and Tokyu Fudosan (T:3289) shed 1.34% or 9.0 points to 661.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2422 to 639 and 292 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.18% to 20.16.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.21% or 0.11 to $53.07 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.18% or 0.10 to hit $55.34 a barrel, while the February Gold contract fell 0.63% or 7.60 to trade at $1203.20 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.11% to 113.67, while EUR/JPY fell 0.16% to 121.91.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 100.30.