Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.34%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Precision Instruments , Gas & Water and Construction sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.34%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were SUMCO Corp. (T: 3436 ), which rose 5.11% or 81.0 points to trade at 1665.0 at the close. The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (T: 5101 ) added 3.75% or 84.0 points to end at 2325.0 and Olympus Corp. (T: 7733 ) was up 3.71% or 150.0 points to 4190.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Toshiba Corp. (T: 6502 ), which lost 7.08% or 15.6 points to trade at 204.6 in late trade. Yokogawa Electric Corp. (T: 6841 ) declined 2.55% or 47.0 points to end at 1793.0 and NKSJ Holdings, Inc. (T: 8630 ) shed 1.79% or 77.0 points to 4229.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1827 to 1141 and 374 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 1.64% to 14.89.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.82% or 0.41 to $50.69 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 1.05% or 0.56 to hit $53.67 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.35% or 4.25 to trade at $1205.15 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.16% to 114.52, while EUR/JPY rose 0.08% to 120.64.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 102.17.