Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 1.04%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp , Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 1.04% to hit a new 3-year low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were J.Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (T: 3086 ), which rose 15.91% or 127.0 points to trade at 925.0 at the close. Concordia Financial Group Ltd (T: 7186 ) added 13.62% or 38.0 points to end at 317.0 and Unitika, Ltd. (T: 3103 ) was up 13.28% or 32.0 points to 273.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (T: 7003 ), which lost 17.51% or 80.0 points to trade at 377.0 in late trade. Softbank Group Corp. (T: 9984 ) declined 17.22% or 559.0 points to end at 2687.0 and Suzuki Motor Corp. (T: 7269 ) shed 13.97% or 400.5 points to 2465.5.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2168 to 1525 and 104 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 56.12.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 10.95% or 2.28 to $23.11 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 4.98% or 1.24 to hit $26.12 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.49% or 7.30 to trade at $1485.20 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 1.03% to 109.17, while EUR/JPY rose 0.71% to 118.77.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.28% at 101.825.