Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Precision Instruments, Electrical/Machinery and Pharmaceutical Industry sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 1.93%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Toshiba Corp. (T:6502), which rose 2.14% or 6.0 points to trade at 286.5 at the close. Shiseido Co., Ltd. (T:4911) added 1.02% or 55.0 points to end at 5442.0 and Hitachi Zosen Corp. (T:7004) was up 0.53% or 3.0 points to 567.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nisshin Steel Holdings Co., Ltd. (T:5413), which lost 5.36% or 100.0 points to trade at 1764.0 in late trade. Fujikura Ltd. (T:5803) declined 5.06% or 53.0 points to end at 994.0 and Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (T:5707) shed 4.86% or 280.0 points to 5480.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2684 to 687 and 136 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.84% to 16.79.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was down 0.23% or 0.13 to $57.49 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February fell 0.08% or 0.05 to hit $62.81 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.47% or 6.00 to trade at $1270.90 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.49% to 112.06, while EUR/JPY fell 0.54% to 132.46.
The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 93.27.