Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.96%

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

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.96%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Pacific Metals Co., Ltd. (T: 5541 ), which rose 6.64% or 147.0 points to trade at 2360.0 at the close. Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (T: 5707 ) added 5.88% or 143.0 points to end at 2577.0 and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (T: 5713 ) was up 5.76% or 275.0 points to 5048.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Yaskawa Electric Corp. (T: 6506 ), which lost 6.29% or 350.0 points to trade at 5210.0 in late trade. Aeon Co., Ltd. (T: 8267 ) declined 5.70% or 150.0 points to end at 2480.5 and Toho Co., Ltd. (T: 9602 ) shed 5.50% or 265.0 points to 4555.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2503 to 1038 and 224 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 21.30.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was down 0.48% or 0.40 to $82.24 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.50% or 0.42 to hit $84.25 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.02% or 0.45 to trade at $1826.85 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.14% to 114.46, while EUR/JPY rose 0.04% to 131.21.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 94.817.