Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.44%

Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Warehousing , Railway & Bus and Pharmaceutical Industry sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.44%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nikon Corp. (T: 7731 ), which rose 4.76% or 84.0 points to trade at 1849.0 at the close. Kajima Corp. (T: 1812 ) added 3.91% or 37.0 points to end at 983.0 and Shimizu Corp. (T: 1803 ) was up 2.53% or 30.0 points to 1216.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd. (T: 5901 ), which lost 3.02% or 57.0 points to trade at 1828.0 in late trade. Okuma Corp. (T: 6103 ) declined 2.82% or 31.0 points to end at 1067.0 and Pioneer Corp. (T: 6773 ) shed 2.70% or 6.0 points to 216.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1618 to 1514 and 327 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.31% to 15.49.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for August delivery was up 1.57% or 0.71 to $45.84 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in September rose 1.46% or 0.70 to hit $48.49 a barrel, while the August Gold Futures contract rose 0.15% or 1.85 to trade at $1223.55 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.04% to 113.32, while EUR/JPY fell 0.02% to 128.58.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 96.00.