Japan stocks lower at close of trade; Nikkei 225 down 0.17%

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 fell 0.17%.

The best performers of the session on the were Recruit Holdings Co Ltd (TYO:), which rose 4.78% or 167.00 points to trade at 3,660.00 at the close. Meanwhile, NH Foods Ltd (TYO:) added 2.61% or 100.00 points to end at 3,925.00 and Okuma Corp. (TYO:) was up 2.14% or 120.00 points to 5,740.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc (TYO:), which fell 2.76% or 66.50 points to trade at 2,345.00 at the close. T&D Holdings, Inc. (TYO:) declined 2.68% or 43.00 points to end at 1,559.00 and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TYO:) was down 2.61% or 114.00 points to 4,251.00.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2195 to 1318 and 298 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 10.18% to 20.48.

Crude oil for May delivery was down 0.87% or 0.62 to $70.28 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 0.74% or 0.57 to hit $76.12 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 1.71% or 33.30 to trade at $1,982.90 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.54% to 130.73, while EUR/JPY rose 0.02% to 142.71.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.33% at 101.64.