Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 2.36% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 2.36% to hit a new 5-year high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (T:6703), which rose 9.64% or 89.0 points to trade at 1012.0 at the close. Oji Holdings Corp. (T:3861) added 7.68% or 48.0 points to end at 673.0 and Bridgestone Corp. (T:5108) was up 5.97% or 205.0 points to 3637.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included IHI Corp. (T:7013), which lost 3.30% or 71.0 points to trade at 2081.0 in late trade. Casio Computer Co., Ltd. (T:6952) declined 2.17% or 40.0 points to end at 1807.0 and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (T:9107) shed 2.11% or 49.0 points to 2271.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2619 to 942 and 182 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 21.72.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.87% or 0.44 to $51.27 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.92% or 0.50 to hit $54.88 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.22% or 4.15 to trade at $1909.45 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.08% to 103.89, while EUR/JPY fell 0.01% to 127.34.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 89.817.