Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.40%

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

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.40%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were J.Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (T:3086), which rose 4.68% or 52.0 points to trade at 1163.0 at the close. Oji Holdings Corp. (T:3861) added 4.47% or 29.0 points to end at 678.0 and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (T:4183) was up 4.38% or 170.0 points to 4055.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (T:9501), which lost 3.12% or 11.0 points to trade at 342.0 in late trade. Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (T:5713) declined 2.79% or 137.0 points to end at 4770.0 and Z Holdings Corp (T:4689) shed 2.53% or 13.0 points to 500.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1841 to 1632 and 258 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 20.34.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for July delivery was up 0.48% or 0.33 to $69.14 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in August rose 0.42% or 0.30 to hit $71.61 a barrel, while the August Gold Futures contract rose 0.15% or 2.75 to trade at $1876.05 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.08% to 110.19, while EUR/JPY fell 0.16% to 133.49.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 90.565.