Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Insurance, Paper & Pulp and Finance & Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Aozora Bank, Ltd. (TYO:8304), which rose 8.56% or 189.50 points to trade at 2,404.50 at the close. Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (TYO:5801) added 5.03% or 142.00 points to end at 2,964.00 and Resonac Holdings Corp (TYO:4004) was up 4.30% or 140.00 points to 3,394.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chiyoda Corp. (TYO:6366), which lost 4.00% or 15.00 points to trade at 360.00 in late trade. DOWA Holdings Co., Ltd. (TYO:5714) declined 3.88% or 217.00 points to end at 5,377.00 and Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (TYO:5707) shed 3.06% or 33.00 points to 1,045.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2293 to 1323 and 262 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 7.96% to 19.88.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.12% or 0.09 to $77.13 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.16% or 0.13 to hit $82.47 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.08% or 1.55 to trade at $2,041.35 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.01% to 150.01, while EUR/JPY rose 0.03% to 162.18.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 103.94.