Mumbai, Dec. 29 -- The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 256 points or 0.51 percent to close trading at 50,494.00. The day's trading range was between 50,354 and 50,744.

Itochu Corp jumped 5.3 percent. Sumitomo Metal Mining as well as Fujikura gained a little less than 4 percent. Sapporo Holdings as well as Mitsui followed with gains of close to 3 percent.

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma led losses with a decline of 3.7 percent. Trend Micro as well as Otsuka Holdings followed with losses of more than 3 percent. DIC Corp and Panasonic, both declined more than 2.5 percent.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Capital Market....