Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.04%

Japan equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Retail, Mining and Transportation Equipment sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.04%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were SUMCO Corp. (TYO:3436), which rose 4.75% or 94.00 points to trade at 2,072.00 at the close. Advantest Corp. (TYO:6857) added 4.26% or 830.00 points to end at 20,300.00 and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (TYO:7211) was up 3.43% or 17.10 points to 516.20 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Eisai Co., Ltd. (TYO:4523), which lost 4.29% or 397.00 points to trade at 8,850.00 in late trade. Kobe Steel, Ltd. (TYO:5406) declined 3.68% or 50.50 points to end at 1,322.50 and Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (TYO:5301) shed 3.60% or 46.00 points to 1,233.00.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1988 to 1590 and 266 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 4.29% to 21.13.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for August delivery was up 0.70% or 0.51 to $73.50 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in September rose 0.62% or 0.48 to hit $78.17 a barrel, while the August Gold Futures contract rose 0.31% or 6.05 to trade at $1,937.05 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.49% to 140.62, while EUR/JPY fell 0.36% to 154.90.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 101.41.