Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Insurance, Finance & Investment and Machinery sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Taiheiyo Cement Corp. (T:5233), which rose 9.76% or 31.0 points to trade at 348.5 at the close. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (TO) (T:8306) added 9.04% or 50.4 points to end at 607.9 and The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. (T:8750) was up 8.91% or 141.2 points to 1725.5 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pioneer Corp. (T:6773), which lost 8.43% or 21.0 points to trade at 228.0 in late trade. Rakuten Inc (T:4755) declined 5.64% or 67.5 points to end at 1130.0 and Comsys Holdings Corp. (T:1721) shed 5.57% or 105.0 points to 1779.0.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1657 to 1358 and 297 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.51% to 21.55.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for December delivery was down 0.43% or 0.19 to $44.47 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 0.33% or 0.15 to hit $45.69 a barrel, while the December Gold contract fell 0.28% or 3.55 to trade at $1262.85 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.35% to 106.46, while EUR/JPY fell 0.18% to 116.19.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.19% at 98.60.