Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Insurance, Mining and Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were NKSJ Holdings, Inc. (T:8630), which rose 6.49% or 198.0 points to trade at 3250.0 at the close. Fujitsu Ltd. (T:6702) added 5.84% or 31.4 points to end at 568.7 and Inpex Corp. (T:1605) was up 3.42% or 31.4 points to 950.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included DeNA Co Ltd (T:2432), which lost 3.84% or 140.0 points to trade at 3510.0 in late trade. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (T:4506) declined 2.21% or 43.0 points to end at 1905.0 and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (T:5711) shed 1.96% or 54.5 points to 2733.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1176 to 731 and 158 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.54% to 20.58.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for November delivery was down 0.44% or 0.22 to $49.61 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in December fell 0.37% or 0.19 to hit $51.67 a barrel, while the December Gold contract fell 0.07% or 0.85 to trade at $1267.75 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was up 0.05% to 103.56, while EUR/JPY fell 0.04% to 115.92.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.15% at 96.27.