Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 1.56%

Investing.com – Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the , and sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the gained 1.56% to hit a new 1-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were Okuma Corp. (TYO:), which rose 5.42% or 300.00 points to trade at 5,840.00 at the close. Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (TYO:) added 5.13% or 218.00 points to end at 4,468.00 and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (TYO:) was up 4.13% or 166.00 points to 4,182.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Otsuka Holdings Ltd (TYO:), which lost 4.25% or 175.00 points to trade at 3,943.00 in late trade. T&D Holdings, Inc. (TYO:) declined 0.93% or 19.00 points to end at 2,016.00 and Fujikura Ltd. (TYO:) shed 0.92% or 9.00 points to 973.00.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2583 to 968 and 284 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 3.78% to 15.78.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for April delivery was down 0.12% or 0.09 to $78.07 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 0.07% or 0.06 to hit $84.69 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 0.46% or 8.55 to trade at $1,849.05 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.27% to 136.40, while EUR/JPY fell 0.03% to 144.87.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 104.71.