Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.49%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Pharmaceutical Industry , Food and Retail sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were JX Holdings, Inc. (T: 5020 ), which rose 4.28% or 28.1 points to trade at 683.9 at the close. Softbank Corp. (T: 9984 ) added 3.44% or 266.0 points to end at 7987.5 and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (T: 5713 ) was up 3.20% or 140.0 points to 4516.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included J.Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (T: 3086 ), which lost 9.28% or 168.0 points to trade at 1642.0 in late trade. Terumo Corp. (T: 4543 ) declined 6.45% or 380.0 points to end at 5510.0 and Kao Corp. (T: 4452 ) shed 4.26% or 348.0 points to 7814.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2146 to 1209 and 187 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 1.32% to 20.96.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was down 0.40% or 0.26 to $65.25 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June fell 0.52% or 0.37 to hit $70.67 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.08% or 1.10 to trade at $1347.00 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.24% to 106.94, while EUR/JPY fell 0.17% to 132.22.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 89.26.