Japan stocks higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.40% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Japan stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the rose 0.40% to hit a new 1-month high.

The best performers of the session on the were NTN Corp. (TYO:), which rose 12.60% or 33.00 points to trade at 295.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Z Holdings Corp (TYO:) added 12.21% or 45.70 points to end at 420.10 and Sony Corp (TYO:) was up 6.18% or 710.00 points to 12,200.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Hino Motors, Ltd. (TYO:), which fell 4.42% or 25.00 points to trade at 541.00 at the close. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (TYO:) declined 3.76% or 19.00 points to end at 486.00 and Oji Holdings Corp. (TYO:) was down 3.72% or 20.00 points to 517.00.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2212 to 1326 and 278 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 2.39% to 17.55.

Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.46% or 0.35 to $75.53 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.38% or 0.31 to hit $81.86 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.20% or 3.90 to trade at $1,926.90 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.03% to 128.62, while EUR/JPY fell 0.24% to 140.03.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 101.76.