Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 3.86%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Precision Instruments , Pharmaceutical Industry and Electrical/Machinery sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 3.86% to hit a new 6-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Panasonic Corp (T: 6752 ), which rose 0.47% or 5.7 points to trade at 1222.2 at the close. Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. (T: 9531 ) added 0.02% or 0.5 points to end at 2755.0 and The Kansai Electric Power Co. (T: 9503 ) was down 0.15% or 2.5 points to 1686.5 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Advantest Corp. (T: 6857 ), which lost 9.78% or 205.0 points to trade at 1891.0 in late trade. Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (T: 6504 ) declined 7.91% or 295.0 points to end at 3435.0 and Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (T: 6976 ) shed 7.41% or 172.0 points to 2150.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 3527 to 153 and 54 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.56% to 25.22.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for December delivery was down 0.27% or 0.18 to $66.64 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in December fell 0.14% or 0.11 to hit $76.06 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.64% or 7.80 to trade at $1235.60 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.03% to 112.28, while EUR/JPY rose 0.16% to 128.08.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 96.10.