Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Transport and Construction sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.73%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Dentsu Inc. (T:4324), which rose 2.61% or 120.0 points to trade at 4715.0 at the close. Nichirei Corp. (T:2871) added 2.22% or 61.0 points to end at 2806.0 and Taisei Corp. (T:1801) was up 2.10% or 110.0 points to 5355.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kobe Steel, Ltd. (T:5406), which lost 7.56% or 84.0 points to trade at 1027.5 in late trade. Showa Denko K.K. (T:4004) declined 6.00% or 290.0 points to end at 4545.0 and Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (T:5301) shed 5.04% or 90.0 points to 1696.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2191 to 1125 and 204 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 9.76% to 25.62.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.70% or 0.44 to $62.16 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 0.74% or 0.49 to hit $65.30 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.04% or 0.60 to trade at $1334.60 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.41% to 105.70, while EUR/JPY fell 0.29% to 131.26.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 89.50.