HONG KONG — Asian stock markets posted gains Friday, with technology-related shares leading the way higher, even as oil prices edged down and investors kept a close watch on the ongoing Iran war.
U.S. futures were pointing slightly lower heading into the trading day.
Tensions between Iran and the United States intensified this week after President Donald Trump declared that the Iran war ceasefire agreement was “over,” following a series of exchanges of attacks between the two countries.
South Korea’s Kospi index climbed 2.5% to 7,475.94, clawing back some of the ground it lost earlier in the week. Shares of memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which is scheduled to make its Nasdaq debut in New York on Friday, rose 2.2% in Seoul trading.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 1.9%, finishing at 69,030.35. SoftBank Group, a major investor in OpenAI, surged 10.5%, while chip equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron added 4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 1.8% at 24,455.01, while China’s Shanghai Composite reversed early gains to close down 0.5% at 4,017.50.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5%, settling at 8,806.00, and India’s Sensex added 0.9%.
Oil prices swung back and forth again on Friday, as global supplies remained constrained by the limited number of ships capable of navigating the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy shipments.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 0.3% to $76.07 per barrel — compared to roughly $72 a barrel before the war broke out in late February. U.S. benchmark crude also dropped 0.3%, to $71.89 a barrel.
On Thursday, U.S. stocks closed higher. The S&P 500 rose 0.8% to 7,543.64, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% to reach 52,487.41, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.3% to close at 26,206.89, with technology stocks driving much of the momentum.
Semiconductor companies were standout performers. Micron Technology jumped 4.5% after announcing plans to expand its U.S. investments, pointing to what it called “surging demand for memory in the AI era.” Shares of Advanced Micro Devices, known as AMD, surged 5.7%. Marvell Technology rose 5%, and ON Semiconductor gained 4.4%.
In currency markets early Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.56 Japanese yen from 162.37 yen the day before. The euro was trading at $1.1444, up slightly from $1.1430.
The yen strengthened against the dollar after Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told a parliamentary committee that the government intends to push large pension funds to put more money into domestic, yen-denominated investments.
