Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, Shipbuilding and Insurance sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.99%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Pacific Metals Co., Ltd. (T:5541), which rose 4.25% or 114.0 points to trade at 2798.0 at the close. Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (T:5707) added 2.41% or 80.0 points to end at 3400.0 and Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (T:4063) was up 2.11% or 192.0 points to 9282.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fujikura Ltd. (T:5803), which lost 8.48% or 39.0 points to trade at 421.0 in late trade. Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (T:5801) declined 7.77% or 248.0 points to end at 2942.0 and Familymart Ltd (T:8028) shed 4.23% or 135.0 points to 3060.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2455 to 1010 and 216 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 7.92% to 17.21.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.55% or 0.31 to $57.18 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.21% or 0.14 to hit $66.81 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.64% or 8.35 to trade at $1306.45 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.02% to 111.38, while EUR/JPY rose 0.11% to 125.81.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 96.852.