Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 2.15%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Precision Instruments , Automobiles & Parts and Electrical/Machinery sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 2.15%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Yamaha Corp. (T: 7951 ), which rose 8.45% or 405.0 points to trade at 5200.0 at the close. Showa Denko K.K. (T: 4004 ) added 8.32% or 300.0 points to end at 3905.0 and Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (T: 9501 ) was up 7.88% or 54.0 points to 739.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Familymart Ltd (T: 8028 ), which lost 7.32% or 1270.0 points to trade at 16080.0 in late trade. Yahoo Japan Corp. (T: 4689 ) declined 1.58% or 5.0 points to end at 312.0 and Nippon Light Metal Holdings Co. (T: 5703 ) shed 1.27% or 3.0 points to 233.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2949 to 595 and 160 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.80% to 23.01.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.91% or 0.47 to $52.12 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.65% or 0.39 to hit $60.59 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.18% or 2.20 to trade at $1249.40 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.05% to 113.44, while EUR/JPY rose 0.11% to 128.45.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 97.395.