Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Hitachi Ltd (T:6501), which rose 3.14% or 136.0 points to trade at 4465.0 at the close. Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd. (T:5214) added 2.83% or 68.0 points to end at 2469.0 and Taiheiyo Cement Corp. (T:5233) was up 2.58% or 85.0 points to 3380.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (T:4568), which lost 5.58% or 414.0 points to trade at 7004.0 in late trade. IHI Corp. (T:7013) declined 3.53% or 92.0 points to end at 2517.0 and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (T:9107) shed 3.43% or 66.0 points to 1860.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2483 to 1055 and 242 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 12.98 a new 52-week low.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was down 0.79% or 0.48 to $60.39 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February fell 0.57% or 0.38 to hit $65.72 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.04% or 0.65 to trade at $1481.25 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.03% to 109.44, while EUR/JPY fell 0.11% to 121.92.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.828.