Japan shares higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 1.58%

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 gained 1.58%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Sony Corp (T:6758), which rose 4.72% or 550.0 points to trade at 12200.0 at the close. Nitto Denko Co (T:6988) added 4.57% or 430.0 points to end at 9840.0 and Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (T:6976) was up 4.50% or 240.0 points to 5570.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included CyberAgent Inc (T:4751), which lost 3.42% or 69.0 points to trade at 1951.0 in late trade. Kansai Electric Power Co Inc (T:9503) declined 3.01% or 35.0 points to end at 1129.0 and Marubeni Corp. (T:8002) shed 2.45% or 22.3 points to 889.0.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2081 to 1440 and 216 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 21.04.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 3.62% or 2.14 to $61.30 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in June rose 0.05% or 0.03 to hit $64.67 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.87% or 14.85 to trade at $1730.45 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.07% to 110.53, while EUR/JPY fell 0.04% to 130.18.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.36% at 92.903.