Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.18%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Mining , Marine Transport and Shipbuilding sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.18%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (T: 3863 ), which rose 3.75% or 77.0 points to trade at 2129.0 at the close. Haseko Corp (T: 1808 ) added 1.77% or 24.00 points to end at 1379.00 and Hitachi Zosen Corp. (T: 7004 ) was up 1.71% or 6.0 points to 357.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (T: 9107 ), which lost 4.88% or 81.0 points to trade at 1580.0 in late trade. Nippon Express Co., Ltd. (T: 9062 ) declined 4.86% or 340.0 points to end at 6650.0 and Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd. (T: 9064 ) shed 3.26% or 97.0 points to 2876.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1951 to 1479 and 263 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.04% to 17.57.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.28% or 0.16 to $57.12 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.13% or 0.09 to hit $67.16 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.10% or 1.35 to trade at $1329.15 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.04% to 110.73, while EUR/JPY rose 0.14% to 125.65.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 96.412.