Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.27%

Japan equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Paper & Pulp, Railway & Bus and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.27%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mazda Motor Corp (T:7261), which rose 6.53% or 68.0 points to trade at 1110.0 at the close. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (T:7003) added 5.07% or 26.0 points to end at 539.0 and Sony Corp (T:6758) was up 3.66% or 400.0 points to 11340.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nikon Corp. (T:7731), which lost 2.91% or 35.0 points to trade at 1166.0 in late trade. Tokyo Electron Ltd. (T:8035) declined 2.11% or 1010.0 points to end at 46930.0 and Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd. (T:4021) shed 1.83% or 100.0 points to 5360.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2649 to 884 and 225 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 17.00 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for August delivery was down 0.16% or 0.12 to $75.11 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in September fell 0.30% or 0.23 to hit $75.61 a barrel, while the August Gold Futures contract fell 0.05% or 0.80 to trade at $1776.00 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 0.09% to 111.59, while EUR/JPY fell 0.12% to 131.97.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 92.677.