Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 1.79%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Retail , Pharmaceutical Industry and Communication sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.79%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were The Japan Steel Works, Ltd. (T: 5631 ), which rose 9.05% or 280.0 points to trade at 3375.0 at the close. Shiseido Co., Ltd. (T: 4911 ) added 6.36% or 394.0 points to end at 6591.0 and SUMCO Corp. (T: 3436 ) was up 5.45% or 146.0 points to 2826.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included NEC Corp. (T: 6701 ), which lost 1.33% or 42.4 points to trade at 3135.1 in late trade. Japan Tobacco Inc (T: 2914 ) declined 0.92% or 28.0 points to end at 3007.0 and Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd. (T: 5232 ) shed 0.83% or 4.0 points to 477.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2958 to 472 and 117 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 5.62% to 28.39.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.02% or 0.01 to $62.58 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 0.14% or 0.09 to hit $65.45 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.27% or 3.60 to trade at $1323.50 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.17% to 106.03, while EUR/JPY fell 0.10% to 130.87.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 89.94.