Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.45%

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 rose 0.45% to hit a new 1-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mazda Motor Corp (T: 7261 ), which rose 5.77% or 55.0 points to trade at 1008.0 at the close. Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (T: 6504 ) added 5.61% or 190.0 points to end at 3575.0 and Yokogawa Electric Corp. (T: 6841 ) was up 4.97% or 99.0 points to 2089.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (T: 6976 ), which lost 2.98% or 105.0 points to trade at 3420.0 in late trade. The Kansai Electric Power Co. (T: 9503 ) declined 2.86% or 35.5 points to end at 1207.0 and CyberAgent Inc (T: 4751 ) shed 2.52% or 95.0 points to 3675.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1970 to 1550 and 265 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 13.90.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for February delivery was up 0.21% or 0.12 to $58.64 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.20% or 0.13 to hit $64.75 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.30% or 4.65 to trade at $1555.15 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.08% to 110.23, while EUR/JPY rose 0.10% to 122.76.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 97.055.