Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.29%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Chemical, Petroleum&Plastic, Marine Transport and Precision Instruments sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.29%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nikon Corp. (TYO:7731), which rose 5.55% or 94.50 points to trade at 1,797.50 at the close. SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) added 3.97% or 345.00 points to end at 9,041.00 and Ricoh Co., Ltd. (TYO:7752) was up 3.12% or 50.50 points to 1,667.50 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Aeon Co., Ltd. (TYO:8267), which lost 8.66% or 336.00 points to trade at 3,542.00 in late trade. Keisei Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (TYO:9009) declined 3.03% or 123.00 points to end at 3,930.00 and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (TYO:7012) shed 2.92% or 191.00 points to 6,339.00.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2257 to 1306 and 280 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 4.35% to 32.08.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for November delivery was up 0.61% or 0.45 to $73.69 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in December rose 0.55% or 0.42 to hit $77.00 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.26% or 6.90 to trade at $2,632.90 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.12% to 149.11, while EUR/JPY fell 0.09% to 163.14.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 102.65.