Crude oil prices and Asian markets rallied in early trade on Thursday as US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held crucial bilateral talks in Beijing to discuss trade, technology, and the ongoing Iran conflict. Brent crude surged more than 4 per cent, while Asian indices showed mixed but mostly positive responses.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 per cent to 62,486.84 after briefly hitting a record high above 63,300 during the session. Technology giant SoftBank Group dropped more than 5 per cent. In contrast, South Korea’s Kospi gained 4.1 per cent to 7,804.71, hitting a fresh all-time intraday high, driven by strong gains in tech stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 per cent to 26,319.93, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.9 per cent to 4,219.13, supported by better-than-expected export data and a rise in factory gate prices.
India’s Sensex declined 1.3 per cent, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.6 per cent, and Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.9 per cent. Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed 4.2 per cent to $105.57 per barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 4.7 per cent to $99.89 per barrel.
Both benchmarks have risen sharply from around $70 per barrel before the Iran-US war began in late February.
American stocks also rallied to fresh all-time highs as the Trump-Xi summit got underway in Beijing.
Trump is accompanied by tech billionaire Elon Musk and other prominent industrialists for the high-profile event.
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