Japan stocks lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 1.77% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Tokyo, the lost 1.77% to hit a new 1-month low.

The best performers of the session on the were Kobe Steel, Ltd. (TYO:), which rose 15.73% or 87.00 points to trade at 640.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Hitachi Zosen Corp. (TYO:) added 14.64% or 100.00 points to end at 783.00 and Japan Steel Works Ltd (TYO:) was up 14.62% or 384.00 points to 3,010.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TYO:), which fell 9.93% or 86.00 points to trade at 780.00 at the close. NTT Data Corp. (TYO:) declined 9.85% or 224.00 points to end at 2,050.00 and Softbank Group Corp. (TYO:) was down 8.03% or 392.00 points to 4,491.00.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2932 to 673 and 148 ended unchanged.

Shares in Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TYO:) fell to 5-year lows; losing 9.93% or 86.00 to 780.00.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 2.14% to 29.71.

Crude oil for June delivery was down 2.41% or 2.55 to $103.16 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in July fell 2.20% or 2.36 to hit $105.15 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract fell 0.26% or 4.90 to trade at $1,848.80 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.85% to 128.85, while EUR/JPY fell 1.29% to 134.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.41% at 104.31.