Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.26%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Steel , Fishery and Precision Instruments sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.26%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Advantest Corp. (T: 6857 ), which rose 8.03% or 135.0 points to trade at 1817.0 at the close. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (T: 7201 ) added 3.00% or 35.0 points to end at 1202.5 and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (T: 7211 ) was up 2.12% or 14.0 points to 675.5 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Olympus Corp. (T: 7733 ), which lost 3.95% or 170.0 points to trade at 4135.0 in late trade. Denki Kagaku Kogyo K.K. (T: 4061 ) declined 3.75% or 20.0 points to end at 514.0 and NEC Corp. (T: 6701 ) shed 3.38% or 11.0 points to 314.5.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2122 to 945 and 305 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.17% to 17.78.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.54% or 0.29 to $53.59 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.45% or 0.25 to hit $55.60 a barrel, while the February Gold contract rose 0.39% or 4.45 to trade at $1138.05 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.35% to 117.44, while EUR/JPY fell 0.11% to 122.33.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.18% at 103.07.