Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.45%

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

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.45%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (T:9107), which rose 2.03% or 42.0 points to trade at 2112.0 at the close. Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. (T:9983) added 1.83% or 1660.0 points to end at 92470.0 and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (T:7211) was up 1.40% or 3.0 points to 217.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Seiko Epson Cor (T:6724), which lost 3.89% or 62.0 points to trade at 1531.0 in late trade. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (T:7003) declined 3.58% or 13.0 points to end at 350.0 and Sapporo Holdings Ltd. (T:2501) shed 3.26% or 67.0 points to 1991.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2031 to 1511 and 196 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 19.40.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.79% or 0.38 to $48.38 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.66% or 0.34 to hit $51.57 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.07% or 1.25 to trade at $1884.15 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.25% to 103.31, while EUR/JPY rose 0.05% to 126.89.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.22% at 89.722.