Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.44%

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 declined 0.44% to hit a new 52-week low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Suzuki Motor Corp. (T: 7269 ), which rose 5.77% or 266.0 points to trade at 4875.0 at the close. DOWA Holdings Co., Ltd. (T: 5714 ) added 3.48% or 170.0 points to end at 5060.0 and Konami Corp. (T: 9766 ) was up 3.05% or 180.0 points to 6090.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd (T: 5019 ), which lost 9.35% or 304.0 points to trade at 2946.0 in late trade. Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (T: 4507 ) declined 5.77% or 392.0 points to end at 6397.0 and Ricoh Co., Ltd. (T: 7752 ) shed 5.33% or 56.0 points to 994.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1891 to 1618 and 256 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 25.74.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.08% or 0.07 to $85.53 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.08% or 0.07 to hit $87.25 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract fell 0.32% or 5.85 to trade at $1846.65 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.07% to 113.93, while EUR/JPY rose 0.00% to 128.65.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 96.017.