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

Investing.com – Japan stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Tokyo, the lost 0.40%.

The best performers of the session on the were NEC Corp. (TYO:), which rose 3.85% or 383.00 points to trade at 10,325.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (TYO:) added 2.98% or 87.00 points to end at 3,006.00 and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TYO:) was up 2.41% or 880.00 points to 37,390.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (TYO:), which fell 3.74% or 250.00 points to trade at 6,431.00 at the close. Bandai Namco Holdings Inc (TYO:) declined 3.22% or 93.00 points to end at 2,791.00 and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TYO:) was down 3.18% or 204.00 points to 6,219.00.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2499 to 1133 and 238 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.05% to 21.96 a new 1-month high.

Crude oil for April delivery was up 0.76% or 0.59 to $78.15 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.68% or 0.56 to hit $82.48 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.08% or 1.65 to trade at $2,164.45 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.10% to 147.53, while EUR/JPY fell 0.08% to 161.22.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 102.51.