Hong Kong

Worldshares 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 US have escalated after President Donald Trump said the Iran war ceasefire agreement was “over” and as the United States and Iran exchanged attacks.

In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1 per cent to 10,478.98. France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.1 per cent to 8,322.31, while Germany’s DAX also gave up 0.1 per cent to 25,082.58. The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1 per cent lower while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1 per cent.

In Asian trading, South Korea’s Kospi gained 2.5 per cent 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 per cent in Seoul.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.2 per cent to 68,557.73. SoftBank Group, a key investor in OpenAI, jumped 10.7 per cent, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron added 2.7 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.6 per cent to 24,175.12 and the Shanghai Composite index fell 1 per cent to 3,996.16. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5 per cent to 8,806.00. India’s Sensex added 1.2 per cent.

Oil prices yo-yoed again on Friday as global oil supplies remained under pressure due to limited numbers of vessels able to cross the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy transport. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.5 per cent to $75.94 per barrel. It was trading near $72 a barrel before the war began in late February. Benchmark US crude shed 0.5 per cent to $71.71 a barrel.

On Thursday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.8 per cent and the Dow picked up 0.3 per cent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3 per cent to 26,206.89. Semiconductors stocks led gains. Micron Technology jumped 4.5 per cent after the memory chipmaker said it would increase its US investments, citing “surging demand for memory in the AI era.”

Shares of AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, surged 5.7 per cent. Marvell Technology rose 5 per cent, while ON Semiconductor added 4.4 per cent. In other dealings early Friday, the US dollar fell to 161.71 Japanese yen from 162.37 yen.

The euro was trading at $1.1432, 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.