Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 1.08%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp , Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.08%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were IHI Corp. (T: 7013 ), which rose 10.05% or 238.0 points to trade at 2607.0 at the close. AGC Inc (T: 5201 ) added 9.43% or 480.0 points to end at 5570.0 and JFE Holdings, Inc. (T: 5411 ) was up 9.04% or 141.0 points to 1700.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included DeNA Co Ltd (T: 2432 ), which lost 6.98% or 123.0 points to trade at 1640.0 in late trade. Taiheiyo Cement Corp. (T: 5233 ) declined 5.82% or 136.0 points to end at 2200.0 and Meiji Holdings Co., Ltd. (T: 2269 ) shed 4.95% or 360.0 points to 6910.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2649 to 939 and 199 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 24.20.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.55% or 0.49 to $88.87 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.56% or 0.51 to hit $90.27 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.02% or 0.30 to trade at $1827.60 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.07% to 115.46, while EUR/JPY fell 0.07% to 131.79.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 95.605.