Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.84%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gas & Water , Transportation Equipment and Power sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.84%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Suzuki Motor Corp. (T: 7269 ), which rose 3.11% or 156.0 points to trade at 5172.0 at the close. Denso Corp. (T: 6902 ) added 2.28% or 112.0 points to end at 5026.0 and Rakuten Inc (T: 4755 ) was up 1.87% or 22.0 points to 1196.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Chiyoda Corp. (T: 6366 ), which lost 6.83% or 25.0 points to trade at 341.0 in late trade. Toho Zinc Co., Ltd. (T: 5707 ) declined 4.64% or 150.0 points to end at 3085.0 and Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (T: 4506 ) shed 4.61% or 115.0 points to 2380.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2930 to 620 and 173 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 5.73% to 14.82 a new 6-month low.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was down 0.27% or 0.17 to $63.59 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June fell 0.36% or 0.26 to hit $71.36 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.04% or 0.55 to trade at $1276.25 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.13% to 111.91, while EUR/JPY fell 0.38% to 126.06.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.21% at 96.865.