Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.71%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Mining , Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic and Financial Services sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.71%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd. (T: 9064 ), which rose 5.99% or 159.0 points to trade at 2812.0 at the close. Yokogawa Electric Corp. (T: 6841 ) added 5.95% or 130.0 points to end at 2316.0 and Advantest Corp. (T: 6857 ) was up 5.69% or 125.0 points to 2322.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Fujifilm Holdings Corp. (T: 4901 ), which lost 8.32% or 380.0 points to trade at 4190.0 in late trade. Tokyo Electron Ltd. (T: 8035 ) declined 4.73% or 1015.0 points to end at 20460.0 and Nisshin Steel Holdings Co., Ltd. (T: 5413 ) shed 3.82% or 73.0 points to 1839.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2477 to 932 and 168 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 6.78% to 17.65 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.53% or 0.34 to $64.16 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.44% or 0.30 to hit $68.22 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.52% or 6.90 to trade at $1342.30 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.16% to 108.61, while EUR/JPY rose 0.30% to 135.31.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.39% at 88.67.