Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.46%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the gained 0.46%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (TYO:), which rose 9.70% or 254.50 points to trade at 2,878.50 at the close. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TYO:) added 6.76% or 54.10 points to end at 854.80 and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (TYO:) was up 6.69% or 272.00 points to 4,335.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Ebara Corp. (TYO:), which lost 4.82% or 655.00 points to trade at 12,935.00 in late trade. Eisai Co., Ltd. (TYO:) declined 3.70% or 240.00 points to end at 6,248.00 and Advantest Corp. (TYO:) shed 2.35% or 157.00 points to 6,526.00.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2538 to 1124 and 208 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.00% to 21.52.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.01% or 0.01 to $79.71 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $84.06 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.36% or 7.95 to trade at $2,172.85 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.12% to 147.91, while EUR/JPY rose 0.04% to 161.82.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 102.50.