HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks mostly advanced Friday, helped by buying of technology-related shares, while oil prices slipped as traders watched for developments in the Iran war.
Tensions between Iran and the U.S. escalated this week after President Donald Trump said the Iran war ceasefire agreement was “over” and as the United States and Iran exchanged attacks.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 2.5% to 7,475.94, recovering some of its losses from earlier in the week. Shares in memory chipmaker SK Hynix, whose debut on the Nasdaq in New York is set for Friday, fell 0.3% in Seoul.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% to 68,557.73. SoftBank Group, a key investor in OpenAI, jumped 10.7%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron added 2.7%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng traded 0.5% higher at 24,156.29 and the Shanghai Composite index erased earlier losses to fall 1% to 3,996.16.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 8,806.00.
India’s Sensex added 1%.
Oil prices yo-yoed again on Friday as global oil supplies remained under pressure due to a limited numbers of vessels able to cross the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy transport.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.8% to $75.66 per barrel. It was trading near $72 a barrel before the war began in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude shed 0.9% to $71.47 a barrel.
On Thursday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3% to 26,206.89.
Semiconductors stocks led gains. Micron Technology jumped 4.5% after the memory chipmaker said it would increase its U.S. investments, citing “surging demand for memory in the AI era.”
Shares of AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, surged 5.7%. Marvell Technology rose 5%, while ON Semiconductor added 4.4%.
In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.70 Japanese yen from 162.37 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1439, up from $1.1430.
The yen gained against the dollar after Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told a parliamentary committee that the government plans to encourage big pension funds to invest more in domestic, yen-denominated assets.
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