"Course for peace" in the Middle East pushed stocks in Asia to a six-week high

Asian shares reached a six-week high on April 15, noted Reuters. Such dynamics stock markets demonstrate on the background of investors' hopes for the resumption of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. These expectations, the agency points out, have already limited oil prices to below $100 per barrel and helped the U.S. dollar to stabilize after seven days of decline.

The MSCI Asia Pacific equity index - excluding Japan - rose 1.5% in trading on April 15, reaching its highest level in six weeks. Japan's Nikkei 225 (up 0.9%) and South Korea's Kospi (up 3% at its intraday high, but then slowed a bit and is up just over 2% at the time of publication) are also up.

Chinese CSI 300 index grew on April 15 by 0.6%, joining the stock markets of Singapore and Taiwan, which have already recovered the losses suffered during the Middle East conflict and returned to the green zone relative to the end of February. However, the CSI 300 ended the day down 0.34%.

The general increase in risk appetite comes after the S&P 500 index approached a new record high the day before, Bloomberg notes.

The cost of Brent crude, meanwhile, is at about the level of the previous close - the June contracts are trading at $94.9 per barrel. WTI futures are down 0.54% at $90.79.

Among the leaders of growth of stock markets in Asia, notes Bloomberg, are securities of IT companies and firms engaged in software development and cybersecurity. That's how the market reacted to news from Nvidia, which late on the evening of April 14 unveiled a set of new open-source AI models aimed at accelerating progress in quantum computing.

Against this backdrop, shares of South Korea's Axgate and ICTK briefly hit the daily growth limit of 30%, up 29.93% and 29.95% respectively at the close of the session. Shares of China's GuoChuang Software and QuantumCTek rose by 2.21% and 3.4% in Shenzhen and Shanghai, while Japan's Fixstars added 8% at the high, but eventually ended the session in the plus by 4.56%.

Nvidia's Ising AI model has renewed investor expectations about AI's ability to improve quantum computing, making it scalable and more useful, Bloomberg explains, but "while these tools could potentially help accelerate development, putting large-scale quantum computing into practice remains a distant prospect," according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Robert Lee.

In general, the agency notes, the growth of securities of companies engaged in quantum computing, occurred against the background of recovery of shares of technological sector and securities of AI-companies in the region. This, among other things, was facilitated by signs of resumption of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran, Bloomberg writes.

"It seems pretty clear at this stage that neither side [of the conflict] is seeking further escalation in terms of hostilities, and it is also increasingly clear that the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is a negotiating move," said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at brokerage Pepperstone (quoted by Reuters). "The course overall is still toward some sort of peace agreement between the U.S. and Iran," he added.

"Markets are building up risk appetite amid renewed U.S.-Iran talks," observed Van Eck Associates cross-asset strategist Anna By (quoted by Bloomberg). - "As the reporting season continues, if investors get a more optimistic outlook with reasonable starting valuations, stocks could move out of 'war-driven' positions faster than we thought," she added.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor