Japan shares lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.97% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.97%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Denso Corp. (T:6902), which rose 2.07% or 119.0 points to trade at 5858.0 at the close. Hitachi Zosen Corp. (T:7004) added 2.02% or 13.0 points to end at 656.0 and CyberAgent Inc (T:4751) was up 1.93% or 140.0 points to 7400.0 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nikon Corp. (T:7731), which lost 6.81% or 56.0 points to trade at 766.0 in late trade. Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. (T:3099) declined 6.61% or 43.0 points to end at 608.0 and J.Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (T:3086) shed 5.62% or 50.0 points to 840.0.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1884 to 1616 and 223 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was unchanged 0% to 23.04 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.31% or 0.16 to $52.26 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 0.42% or 0.23 to hit $54.87 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.27% or 5.00 to trade at $1834.90 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.12% to 103.75, while EUR/JPY fell 0.16% to 125.30.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 90.820.