Asian Stock Markets Rebound Amid Easing Middle East Tensions

Hong Kong. Asian stock markets turned green on Thursday. Asian stock markets, which had fallen sharply on Tuesday and Wednesday amid concerns that oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz would halt amidst escalating tensions in the Middle East following attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran at the end of last week, showed some improvement on Thursday morning.

South Korea's Kospi index rose by about 10 percent in early trading. Wednesday, however, became one of the worst days in decades for this index. When the market closed that day, Kospi had fallen by nearly 12 percent. Trading was halted for some time using a mechanism called 'circuit breaker' after the Kospi index fell below 8 percent on Wednesday. This system is used to prevent excessive selling due to sudden panic.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index also rose by 4 percent on Thursday morning. This index had fallen by 3.6 percent when trading closed on Wednesday. Both South Korea and Japan are major oil-importing countries from the Middle East. However, shipping from there has almost stopped after Iran threatened to burn ships passing through the vital Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of the world's oil and gas is transported through this route. In Thursday's trading, most stock markets in this region, including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore, are in the green.