Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.24%

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

At the close in Tokyo, the gained 0.24%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were CyberAgent Inc (TYO:), which rose 4.95% or 41.90 points to trade at 888.80 at the close. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (TYO:) added 3.14% or 16.00 points to end at 526.00 and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (TYO:) was up 3.06% or 126.00 points to 4,237.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Advantest Corp. (TYO:), which lost 4.33% or 207.00 points to trade at 4,570.00 in late trade. NEC Corp. (TYO:) declined 2.96% or 247.00 points to end at 8,087.00 and Odakyu Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (TYO:) shed 2.02% or 43.50 points to 2,113.50.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2186 to 1404 and 281 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.82% to 17.87 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was down 0.32% or 0.25 to $77.52 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 0.35% or 0.29 to hit $82.16 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract fell 0.04% or 0.85 to trade at $2,000.75 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.38% to 148.96, while EUR/JPY rose 0.26% to 162.33.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.21% at 103.67.