HONG KONG: Asian stocks were mostly up Friday tracking Wall Street gains while oil prices also rose on the fragile Iran war ceasefire and ahead of Iran-US peace talks in Pakistan.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.8 per cent to 5,879.71. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 1.6 per cent to 56,789.58. Shares of Fast Retailing, parent of Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, surged more than 10 per cent after the group raised profit expectations for the year.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.7 per cent to 25,919.12, while the Shanghai Composite index was 0.6 per cent higher at 3,991.14. China on Friday reported that its consumer price index – a main inflation gauge – was up 1 per cent in March compared with a year ago, lower than what analysts had expected and down from the 1.3 per cent increase in February.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 per cent. Taiwan's Taiex rose 1.3 per cent, while India's Sensex gained 0.7 per cent.
Talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan's capital Islamabad for a possible permanent ceasefire agreement in the Iran war are expected to take place starting Saturday, with US Vice President JD Vance leading the delegation for the United States.
But ahead of the talks, deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday raised questions whether the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war is still intact, while the Islamic Republic maintained control over the Strait of Hormuz, which is largely closed despite demands from the US to reopen the waterway critical for global oil and gas transport.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had authorized talks with Lebanon, with negotiations said to be expected in Washington next week.
Oil was up modestly on Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, was 0.5 per cent higher at USD 96.42 per barrel. Benchmark US crude was up 0.4 per cent to USD 98.28 a barrel.
For oil prices, “USD 65-70 a barrel is not coming back,” Ajay Rajadhyaksha of Barclays wrote in a recent research note, referring to the pre-Iran war oil price levels. The bank predicts that Brent crude could remain at around $85 per barrel on average for this year.
“A ceasefire is not a refund,” he wrote. “Ceasefires end wars; they don't undo them.”
On Thursday, Wall Street gained on hopes of the Iran war ceasefire. The S&P 500 added 0.6 per cent to 6,824.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6 per cent to 48,185.80, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8 per cent to 22,822.42.
Shares of Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and Corona beers in the US, jumped 8.5 per cent following better-than-expected quarterly results. Cloud services provider CoreWeave was 3.5% higher after announcing an expanded deal with Meta Platforms through 2032. Meta was up 2.6 per cent.
In other dealings, gold and silver prices fell. Gold's price lost 0.5 per cent to USD 4,791.90 an ounce, while silver prices dropped 0.6 per cent to USD 76.02 per ounce.
The US dollar rose to 159.18 Japanese yen from 158.96 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1694, down from USD 1.1699.