Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Precision Instruments, Communication and Electrical/Machinery sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 1.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (TYO:7012), which rose 5.43% or 248.00 points to trade at 4,813.00 at the close. DeNA Co Ltd (TYO:2432) added 4.35% or 58.50 points to end at 1,403.00 and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (TYO:9532) was up 3.77% or 116.00 points to 3,197.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mazda Motor Corp (TYO:7261), which lost 6.28% or 112.00 points to trade at 1,672.50 in late trade. Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (TYO:7735) declined 6.11% or 1,225.00 points to end at 18,820.00 and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (TYO:7201) shed 4.78% or 27.90 points to 555.70.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2291 to 1381 and 208 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 2.40% to 20.87.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.05% or 0.04 to $79.17 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.05% or 0.04 to hit $83.00 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.14% or 3.00 to trade at $2,161.20 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.60% to 148.48, while EUR/JPY fell 0.60% to 161.87.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 103.20.