Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Shipbuilding, Insurance and Banking sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were NEC Corp. (TYO:6701), which rose 3.85% or 383.00 points to trade at 10,325.00 at the close. Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (TYO:5801) added 2.98% or 87.00 points to end at 3,006.00 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO:8035) was up 2.41% or 880.00 points to 37,390.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (TYO:9107), which lost 3.74% or 250.00 points to trade at 6,431.00 in late trade. Bandai Namco Holdings Inc (TYO:7832) declined 3.22% or 93.00 points to end at 2,791.00 and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TYO:4519) shed 3.18% or 204.00 points to 6,219.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2499 to 1133 and 238 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.05% to 21.96 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.79% or 0.61 to $78.17 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.73% or 0.60 to hit $82.52 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.07% or 1.45 to trade at $2,164.65 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.11% to 147.52, while EUR/JPY fell 0.09% to 161.21.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 102.50.