Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 1.82%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic , Rubber and Mining sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.82% to hit a new 1-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Yaskawa Electric Corp. (T: 6506 ), which rose 6.01% or 185.0 points to trade at 3265.0 at the close. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (T: 7003 ) added 5.40% or 62.0 points to end at 1211.0 and Asahi Kasei Corp. (T: 3407 ) was up 5.26% or 58.5 points to 1171.5 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Olympus Corp. (T: 7733 ), which lost 1.55% or 75.0 points to trade at 4775.0 in late trade. Sojitz Corp. (T: 2768 ) declined 0.95% or 4.0 points to end at 418.0 and Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (T: 6976 ) shed 0.75% or 18.0 points to 2384.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2924 to 637 and 147 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 4.84% to 18.64.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 1.02% or 0.57 to $56.55 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.51% or 0.34 to hit $66.59 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.18% or 2.35 to trade at $1325.35 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.10% to 110.59, while EUR/JPY rose 0.21% to 124.95.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 96.710.