Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 2.12%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Precision Instruments , Insurance and Electrical/Machinery sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 2.12%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (T: 9501 ), which rose 4.13% or 14.0 points to trade at 353.0 at the close. IHI Corp. (T: 7013 ) added 3.76% or 103.0 points to end at 2843.0 and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (T: 9107 ) was up 2.84% or 190.0 points to 6880.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd (T: 6178 ), which lost 5.69% or 57.1 points to trade at 945.9 in late trade. Advantest Corp. (T: 6857 ) declined 5.64% or 610.0 points to end at 10210.0 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (T: 8035 ) shed 5.27% or 2840.0 points to 51000.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2650 to 918 and 173 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 6.06% to 22.40.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for November delivery was down 0.54% or 0.41 to $74.88 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in December fell 0.63% or 0.49 to hit $77.86 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.09% or 1.55 to trade at $1739.05 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.01% to 111.49, while EUR/JPY fell 0.25% to 129.92.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.17% at 93.942.