Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 1.22%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Mining , Electrical/Machinery and Rubber sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.22%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TYO: 9501 ), which rose 9.66% or 42.00 points to trade at 477.00 at the close. Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (TYO: 5707 ) added 6.77% or 192.00 points to end at 3,030.00 and Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (TYO: 4507 ) was up 5.52% or 365.00 points to 6,976.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Recruit Holdings Co Ltd (TYO: 6098 ), which lost 2.72% or 147.00 points to trade at 5,250.00 in late trade. Olympus Corp. (TYO: 7733 ) declined 2.04% or 50.00 points to end at 2,406.00 and Concordia Financial Group Ltd (TYO: 7186 ) shed 1.08% or 5.00 points to 459.00.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2422 to 1128 and 210 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 8.79% to 20.85.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was down 1.05% or 1.09 to $103.16 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June fell 0.86% or 0.94 to hit $107.84 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.52% or 10.40 to trade at $1,974.30 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.39% to 125.17, while EUR/JPY fell 0.20% to 136.51.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.25% at 99.66.