Bangkok

Worldshares and US futures retreated on Thursday as oil prices jumped more than 2 per cent following a report by Iran’s state television that seven oil tankers caught fire and were damaged in the Strait of Hormuz.

If the report is verified, it would be the largest number of vessels damaged in the waterway in a single day since the start of the Iran war on February 28.

Brent crude, the international standard, gained 3.2 per cent to $112.27 per barrel. It has been bouncing between $97 and $112 in recent days on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global energy industry to return to normal.

US benchmark crude rose 2.8 per cent to $99.80 per barrel.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX shed 1.1 per cent to 25,367.96, while the CAC 40 in Paris declined 1.3 per cent to 7,816.67. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.7 per cent at 10,678.67.

The future for the S&P 500 lost 1 per cent and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.7 per cent lower.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.7 per cent to 62,907.84 on heavy selling of big tech companies like SoftBank Group, which lost 6.9 per cent.

Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron fell 7 per cent and testing equipment maker Advantest lost 6 per cent.

In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 3.5 per cent, to 5,533.77. Big memory chipmakers led the decline, with Samsung Electronics down 4 per cent. SK Hynix lost 5.5 per cent.

AI stocks, at the centre of market action in recent months, are under pressure from worries that construction of data centres may slow as it is becoming increasingly expensive to borrow money.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 3 per cent to 22,934.68, and the Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.5 per cent to 3,658.03. Taiwan’s Taiex lost 1.8 per cent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.4 per cent to 8,793.20.

The US stock market rose Wednesday following strong profit reports from SpaceX, Capital One Financial and other big companies.