Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.20%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Shipbuilding , Retail and Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.20%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Hokuetsu Kishu Paper Co., Ltd. (T: 3865 ), which rose 7.78% or 42.0 points to trade at 582.0 at the close. Oji Holdings Corp. (T: 3861 ) added 4.59% or 27.0 points to end at 615.0 and Nomura Holdings Inc (T: 8604 ) was up 4.07% or 17.8 points to 455.5 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Chiyoda Corp. (T: 6366 ), which lost 6.39% or 20.0 points to trade at 293.0 in late trade. Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (T: 7735 ) declined 5.46% or 275.0 points to end at 4765.0 and Familymart Ltd (T: 8028 ) shed 3.96% or 520.0 points to 12610.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2319 to 1158 and 211 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.51% to 22.11.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was down 0.84% or 0.44 to $51.87 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.75% or 0.46 to hit $60.86 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.04% or 0.55 to trade at $1293.25 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.27% to 108.78, while EUR/JPY fell 0.36% to 123.88.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 95.817.