Investing.com – Japan stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Insurance, Finance & Investment and Machinery sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.18%.
The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Taiheiyo Cement Corp. (T:5233), which rose 9.76% or 31.0 points to trade at 348.5 at the close. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (TO) (T:8306) added 9.04% or 50.4 points to end at 607.9 and The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. (T:8750) was up 8.91% or 141.2 points to 1725.5 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Pioneer Corp. (T:6773), which fell 8.43% or 21.0 points to trade at 228.0 at the close. Rakuten Inc (T:4755) declined 5.64% or 67.5 points to end at 1130.0 and Comsys Holdings Corp. (T:1721) was down 5.57% or 105.0 points to 1779.0.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 1657 to 1358 and 297 ended unchanged.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 0.51% to 21.55.
Crude oil for December delivery was down 0.43% or 0.19 to $44.47 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 0.37% or 0.17 to hit $45.67 a barrel, while the December Gold contract fell 0.28% or 3.55 to trade at $1262.85 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.36% to 106.45, while EUR/JPY fell 0.19% to 116.18.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.20% at 98.59.