Japan stocks lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.30%

Investing.com – Japan stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Shipbuilding, Gas&Water and Precision Instruments sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.30%.

The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mitsui Engineering&Shipbuilding (TYO:7003), which rose 3.57% or 19.00 points to trade at 551.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Kyocera Corp. (TYO:6971) added 2.52% or 201.00 points to end at 8,185.00 and Rakuten Inc (TYO:4755) was up 2.22% or 13.10 points to 602.80 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (TYO:4506), which fell 4.89% or 24.00 points to trade at 467.00 at the close. Kobe Steel, Ltd. (TYO:5406) declined 4.30% or 76.50 points to end at 1,703.50 and Seven&i Holdings Co., Ltd. (TYO:3382) was down 3.83% or 219.00 points to 5,500.00.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2108 to 1487 and 268 ended unchanged.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 2.90% to 17.36.

Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.20% or 0.15 to $76.56 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $81.48 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.29% or 6.00 to trade at $2,046.00 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.26% to 147.10, while EUR/JPY fell 0.18% to 161.83.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 102.54.