Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.05%

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

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.05%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were IHI Corp. (TYO:7013), which rose 3.20% or 192.00 points to trade at 6,189.00 at the close. Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (TYO:9532) added 2.82% or 99.00 points to end at 3,615.00 and Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (TYO:4568) was up 2.53% or 151.00 points to 6,131.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nidec Corp (TYO:6594), which lost 3.32% or 202.00 points to trade at 5,883.00 in late trade. Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. (TYO:7735) declined 2.84% or 315.00 points to end at 10,770.00 and SUMCO Corp. (TYO:3436) shed 2.57% or 43.50 points to 1,651.00.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2061 to 1546 and 253 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 4.99% to 22.47.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for October delivery was up 0.20% or 0.15 to $74.67 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in November rose 0.14% or 0.11 to hit $77.69 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.57% or 14.50 to trade at $2,552.30 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.02% to 144.60, while EUR/JPY rose 0.09% to 160.95.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 100.88.